Crime & Safety

Report Lists Top Reasons Why Greenwich Police Officers Pull Your Vehicle Over

A new report lets you know why a police officer in your town is most likely to stop your car and whether you'll receive a fine or a warning.

A recent report by the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project found that the Greenwich Police Department conducted 7,165 traffic stops from Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015.

Top reasons for getting pulled over:

Top reasons for pulling over motorists:

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  • Speeding: 29.39%
  • Registration: 17.28%
  • Cell phone violation: 10.58%
  • Other: 9.95%
  • Defective lights: 6.92%

Outcome of stop:

  • Infraction: 54.15%
  • Verbal warning: 23.66%
  • Written warning: 15.42%
  • Misdemeanor summons: 3.68%

About 18% of all stops were of Hispanic motorists and about 9% of Greenwich's population is composed of Hispanics 16-years-old and older. Greenwich's black population over the age of 16 is listed as about 2% and blacks accounted for about 8% of all stops.

Find out what's happening in Greenwichfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The report states that in Connecticut 14.1 percent of 585,000 traffic stops between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015 involved black residents and 12.5 percent involved Hispanic motorists. Traffic stops are more likely during daylight hours.

Five municipal departments and one state police troop in Connecticut were identified to “exhibit a statistically significant racial or ethnic disparity that may indicate the presence of racial and ethnic bias” including: Bloomfield, New Milford, Norwalk, West Hartford, Wethersfield and State Police Troop H.

Additionally, 25 police officers throughout Connecticut were deemed to be more likely to pull people over based on race, the report notes.

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