Boston-indizierte Trends, 2015–2024 (2015 = 100): zivile Verkehrskontrollen im Vergleich zu vereidigten Beamten, Bevölkerung und mittleres Verkehrsaufkommen.
Datenquellen.
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Haltestellen für den Zivilverkehr: MassDOT Driver Citation Data Portal, Auszüge auf Verstoßebene für die Stadt Boston (2015–2024), gefiltert nach zivilen (nicht strafrechtlichen) Betreiberzitaten, die vom Boston Police Department zu nicht unfallbedingten Stopps herausgegeben wurden. https://drivercitationdata.dot.mass.gov/
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Als vereidigter Beamter gilt: Mitarbeiterverdienstberichte der Stadt Boston, 2015–2024, veröffentlicht auf Analyze Boston (data.boston.gov, Datensatz
418983dc-7cae-42bb-88e4-d56f5adcf869); BPD-vereidigtes Personal, identifiziert nach Abteilung und Rang/Titel. -
Bevölkerung: US Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program (PEP) – Jahrgang 2019 für 2015–2019 und Jahrgang 2024 für 2020–2024.
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Verkehrsaufkommen: Verkehrszählungen des Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT); der mittlere jährliche durchschnittliche tägliche Verkehr (AADT) über alle permanenten und kurzfristigen Zählstationen innerhalb der Stadt Boston für jedes Kalenderjahr.
Methoden. Jährliche Zählungen ziviler, nicht unfallbedingter Verkehrsanzeigen auf Bedienerebene, die von der Boston Police Department von 2015 bis 2024 herausgegeben wurden, wurden aus dem MassDOT Driver Citation Data Portal aggregiert und im Kalenderjahr mit (a) den BPD-Mitarbeiterzahlen der vereidigten Beamten, abgeleitet aus den Employee Earnings Reports der Stadt Boston, (b) den Bostoner Wohnbevölkerungsschätzungen aus dem US Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (Jahrgang 2019 für die Jahre vor 2020) zusammengeführt; (Jahrgang 2024 danach) und (c) der mittlere AADT aller MassDOT-Zählstationen in Boston für dasselbe Jahr. Jede Reihe wurde auf ihren Wert von 2015 (2015 = 100) indexiert, sodass proportionale Änderungen auf einer einzigen Achse verglichen werden konnten. Das Jahr 2025 wurde ausgeschlossen, da sowohl die Zitationsreihe als auch das AADT-Panel zum Zeitpunkt der Analyse unvollständig waren (Teiljahreszitate; nur eine berichtende Zählstation). Die gesamte Verarbeitung erfolgte in Python (pandas/matplotlib)
Von ARPE19
26 Kommentare
I wouldn’t want cops in my area spending all their time writing traffic tickets, I want them to go after violent crime and theft.
Have you dealt with Boston drivers before?
Police forces across the country are quiet quitting.
Body cameras. I can guarantee it. No one wants to make much effort with the oversight. Each interaction now exposes you to critique.
Based, traffic enforcement is just a legalized racketeering scheme
In my area they’ve been ramping up traffic cameras (speeding, red light) — I wonder if maybe that is a factor? Perhaps the cops are leaving it to the automated systems to deal with these things?
This is a nationwide pattern
Great question; I suspect the answer is „resources“. Property crime is through the roof, with low-level drug crime also rampant. Cops are busy arresting people that will be released hours later. Only to arrest them again the next day.
Has their use gone up in other areas?
Police forces now have infinite money and zero accountability, so they can use their cars for SA’ing helpless women rather than having to be ‚revenue enhancement officers‘ when there was at least fiscal accountability.
They did the same thing in Portland. Traffic stops are nonexistent from city police.
I agree that this is a problem, but without showing a rise in say car accidents, speeding etc, this loses some of it’s credibility. For all we know Boston drivers suddenly learned to drive (I kid lmao), but that would be great to add!
I beleive that most people from Boston are walking there
More people have cameras at all times in their cars, police who used to abuse the system dont want to be caught doing so, so as a result stop doing things where they abuse power and are caught doing so.
On a particular 55mph road i commute off hours on, i have watch the average speed go form 65 to no 85+.
It’s nice.
To give an actual explanation:
The BPD currently has a significant shortage of officers. They are authorized to have 2,500 officers but currently have 2,000 and are heavily reliant on overtime. Traffic enforcement is commonly reduced when a police department is understaffed.
There has also been recent scrutiny over the racial bias of traffic stops (e.g. [this study](https://www.mass.gov/doc/2021-2022-massachusetts-uniform-citation-data-analysis-report-executive-summary/download) and [this one](https://impactengines.northeastern.edu/project/mass-trafficstops-2023/)).
There has also been a nation-wide drop in police carrying out discretionary activities, which some characterize as „soft quitting“ while others characterize it as individuals or departments trying to avoid unnecessary liability.
There is a good reason to check cars. You might find wanted persons, crime in progress and other illegal activites. So it’s not all bad
Everyone is overlooking the obvious answer. That year everyone in Boston became better drivers.
Lots of cities instituted policies to discourage stops for low-level offenses in the wake of George Floyd, Philando Castillo and BLM protests. Too often these stops served as pretexts and carried an unnecessary risk of escalation. IDK if that’s the case in Boston but there’s similar data for Denver and that’s exactly what happened.
For Denver, the data on traffic enforcement and crashes with serious injury / fatalities is noisy with year-to-year variation. Subjectively, the roads here feel like GTA sometimes.
Oh hey, same with Toronto!
But of course they have their guaranteed budget increase above inflation.
The police where I live quiet quit too…
I would assume that the Black Lives Matter and policing reform movement pushed cities to curtail traffic stops as a means to search for suspected criminals. (I.e. Broken taillight policing)
In particular, the George Floyd protests and Defund movement around 2020 seem to track here.
Most urban areas are swamped with homelessness and fentanyl addicts, and the petty crimes attendant to that.
Has legitimate crime gone up in this area at all?
It’s obvious isn’t it, Ai is taking over the drivers. /s
The Black Lives Matter ACAB bit. It was decided that too many black people were pulled over by traffic enforcement. I’m not kidding.