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 and Worcester State Universities research team to analyze Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) traffic stop data collected from all Massachusetts uniform citations issued by state and local police departments. The research team published their inaugural report in February 2022 and subsequently published its second report in February 2024.
As part of an ongoing effort to provide members of the public with meaningful access to the RMV data behind the annual reports, this dashboard makes 2021 and 2022 citation data that was the subject of the second report available in aggregate form. In addition, the 2020 citation data dashboard is also available. The dashboards are presented separately due to differences in how the 2020 data was analyzed; additional information on the methods used to analyze these data sets can be found in the citation data reports.
You can explore both citation data reports and dashboards here.
About the Information Displayed Below
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. 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 stops that resulted in at least one citation;
- total motor vehicle citations issued;
- stops in which a citation was 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 stop;
- 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 a motorist’s 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/or 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.”
Users can download the aggregate dataset for 2021 and 2022 by clicking the links 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).