Do time and weather matter? Temporal analysis of police traffic stops.

• In Event: Police Motor Vehicle Stops and Collisions

Abstract

Police traffic stops have been a frequent research topic over recent years. However, nearly all the research has been contextual to racial profiling, focusing on driver characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race) and post-stop decision making (e.g., warning, citation, search). Although temporal factors may appear to be tangential to discretionary decision-making, for traffic enforcement they may be at the core. The current research systematically analyzes temporal variables (e.g., time of day, day of week) and weather (e.g., temperature, precipitation, wind speed) and their relationship with stop frequency. Descriptive statistics and frequencies are applied to address research questions, as well as t-test and ANOVA.

Authors

• Xiaochen Hu, Sam Houston State University

• Larry Hoover, Sam Houston State University