ACLU-NJ Releases Report Analyzing Statewide Policing Data, Calls for Traffic Stop Reform

The ACLU of New Jersey today released a report, “New Jersey’s Road to Safety and Racial Justice: Reducing Non-Safety Traffic Stops,” that includes analysis of New Jersey State Police traffic stop enforcement data and recommends modernizing the traffic code to increase public safety and reduce racial disparities in policing by focusing law enforcement resources on addressing dangerous driving instead of minor technical infractions.

“New Jersey should leverage every tool at its disposal to protect its communities, and that includes promoting public safety by addressing dangerous driving,” said Lauren Aung, Policy Fellow at the ACLU of New Jersey. “Research has shown that if lawmakers modernize the traffic code and focus law enforcement resources on preventing accidents, lives are saved and racial disparities in traffic stop enforcement improve – we're calling on the Legislature to make that reality.”

Traffic stops should result in keeping the community safe by addressing dangerous driving that could injure or kill people – like speeding, reckless driving, and drunk driving. But New Jersey’s traffic code is overly broad, including technical infractions inconsequential to road safety, like expired inspections, cracked or obstructed windshields, and broken taillights. When a driver is pulled over for one of these minor violations, that is known as a non-safety traffic stop.

“In a constitutional democracy, law enforcement should not be able to conduct arbitrary stops,” said Emily Reina Dindial, Senior Policy Counsel with ACLU’s Justice Division. “Right now, it is too easy for police to stop cars in New Jersey and circumvent constitutional protections by using minor, non-safety offenses as justification for a stop with an ulterior motive. This bill modernizes the traffic code to reduce stops that have nothing to do with road safety, while simultaneously strengthening civil rights and liberties for New Jerseyans on the road.”

Out of the 11,750 vehicles involved in fatal crashes in New Jersey from 2010 to 2023, 45 – or 0.38% – of those vehicles had issues with lights, windows, mirrors, or windshields. Each fatal crash in New Jersey is a tragic loss of life that should be addressed by building safer roadways and rooting out dangerous driving. Minor traffic code infractions play a statistically insignificant role in fatal crashes – law enforcement resources would better benefit public safety if they no longer were required to focus on technicalities like non-safety traffic violations.

Non-safety traffic stops damage the relationship between the public and police. These types of violations are often used to conduct pretextual stops – in which an officer uses a minor traffic violation to initiate a stop and pursue further investigation in hopes of discovering more serious offenses – and can lead to high-pressure interactions with officers over trivial infractions that are inconsequential to road safety. These stops also threaten constitutional protections that guard people from unreasonable searches and seizures while diverting resources away from addressing driving behaviors that endanger lives.

Past research has shown that traffic stops in New Jersey disproportionately target and harm drivers who are Black. New analysis of more than six million traffic stops in New Jersey between January 2009 and May 2021 has found that Black people accounted for 18.8% of all drivers pulled over, despite comprising 8.2% of New Jersey drivers. Additionally, Black drivers accounted for 36.5% of all searches.

ACLU-NJ analysis of data for non-safety violations showed further evidence of racial disparities. For example, among non-safety traffic stops for technical infractions related to windshield obstruction and window tinting, Black people accounted for 28.1% of stops and 49.3% of searches.

“As reflected in the report, there is a clear distinction between violations that directly impact roadway safety and those that do not,” said Niles R. Wilson, Senior Director of Law Enforcement Initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity. “What the analysis further shows is that enforcement of non-safety violations leads to alarming inequities, particularly for Black drivers who are disproportionately stopped and searched for minor infractions. Non-safety violations are often subjective and have little connection to crash risk. Enforcing them can pull officer attention and resources away from the traffic behaviors that pose the highest risk to the public. Focusing enforcement on the driving behaviors most likely to cause serious injury or death supports evidence-based traffic safety. It ensures that New Jersey’s law enforcement officers are properly equipped, directed, and legally empowered to address the greatest dangers on our roads.”

The report urges legislators to support policy change – which has broad support from New Jersey voters – that reduces non-safety traffic stops and focuses law enforcement resources on addressing dangerous driving. This includes modernizing the traffic code to focus on violations that pose an immediate, direct threat to public safety. In cities and states around the country where this type of reform has already been implemented, fatal crashes have dramatically declined.