MPD to track race, gender at 6 types of police stops

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Minneapolis police announced on Thursday they plan to record race and gender on six of the most common types of police stops. It’s a move the department along with civil rights activists hope will increase transparency.

“I think the data collection process that the Minneapolis Police Department is preparing to undertake is a step in the right direction, however, there will need to be more accountability and transparency in analyzing the data,” said Minneapolis NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds.

 Police Chief Janee Harteau released the following statement:

"The goal is to provide more information and context to data sets that community members may be interested in. Capturing this information will not only increase our Department's procedural justice efforts, we hope it will further increase and promote trust and legitimacy with the communities we serve."

The six types of stops that will be recorded are as follows:

1) Suspicious person
2) Suspicious vehicle stops.
3) Traffic stops
4) Curfew infractions
5) Truancy
6) Attempted pickups

Post stop data will also include:

1) What race the dispatcher said the subject of the call was
2) What race the subject actually was
3) The subject’s gender
4) Whether or not there was a search
5) The reason for the stop

Minneapolis Police say it was officers who lobbied for the number of stops tracked to be expanded from two to six. The officer’s union supports the increased data collection, telling FOX 9 their caveat for support was that 911 dispatcher data also be recorded.