Introduction
As part of their responsibilities under the 2019 law, An Act Requiring the Hands-Free Use of Mobile Telephones While Driving, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) and the Office of Grants and Research (OGR) contracted with a Salem State University research team to analyze Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) traffic stop data collected from all Massachusetts uniform citations issued by Massachusetts state and local police departments.
On February 7, 2022, the research team published their inaugural report analyzing data from citations issued between the law’s implementation on February 23, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The researchers and state officials convened several public hearings following the report’s release to present the analysis and accept public comments regarding the report.
This dashboard represents a continued effort to provide members of the public with meaningful access to the RMV data behind the annual reports.
Read the Executive Summary, Full Report and Frequently Asked Questions.
About this Data
Like the annual reports required by the Hands-Free Law, this dashboard provides aggregate data for law enforcement agencies that issued 100 or more citations, accounting for more than 80 percent of the 350 law enforcement agencies across the Commonwealth. Researchers excluded agencies with less than 100 citations because it would be difficult to draw conclusions from such a small sample size.
Users can view:
- total motor vehicle citations issued;
- citations issued by individual law enforcement agencies;
- motorist age, gender and race;
- whether the motorist was a resident of the municipality where the citation was issued;
- date and time of the motor vehicle citation;
- whether a non-inventory search was conducted; and
- whether the stop resulted in a warning, citation or arrest.
In conformity with the law and in the interest of safeguarding the privacy of “any individual involved in a stop made by a law enforcement officer,” values of less than five (<5) are not displayed in the aggregate data, downloadable data, or graphs.
Data regarding a motorist’s age, gender and city of residence are based on information maintained by the RMV. Information regarding motorists’ race and ethnicity is not collected by the RMV. This aggregate data and data dashboard contain information regarding officer perception of a motorist’s race and ethnicity.
Where a citation field was missing information or the field was recorded as “Unknown,” the data point is entered in this dashboard and the aggregate data as “Unknown.” For example, if an operator’s race was not noted on a citation, the operator’s race appears in the aggregate data and dashboard as “Unknown.” The 2020 data report excludes unknown or missing data from its analysis. Future reports will contain analysis of this data.
At a future date, state officials will provide data from subsequent years.
Users can download the aggregate dataset by clicking the link at the bottom of the display.
Footnote for all data:
In conformity with the law and in the interest of safeguarding the privacy of “any individual involved in a stop made by a law enforcement officer,” values of less than five (<5) are not displayed in the aggregate data, downloadable data, or graphs.
Footnote to aggregate data and Motorist Residence graph:
Citation by motorist residence for “In-town” and “Passing Through” was determined by comparing zip codes. “Not Applicable” was assigned to any law enforcement agency that serves multiple municipalities (i.e., state law enforcement agencies).