Indiana - Traffic Stop Data_1

To Whom It May Concern:

I am the managing editor of Peninsula Press, a multimedia news website based out of Stanford University in California. We are working on collecting data on traffic stops and searches made by state patrols across the country. (I previously contacted your agency regarding record layout information about what datapoints your state collects and Cynthia Forbes provided the information that is written on Indiana Uniform Traffic Tickets.)

Pursuant to the Indiana Access to Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

I am requesting the raw data of traffic stops made in your state and laid out in your record description for the last ten (10) years. The fields of data include:

---Driver information: DOB, description (race/height/weight), license type, state of issuance.

---Vehicle information: color, year, model/make, license year, plate number, commercial motor vehicle information if applicable, state of license plate.

---Offense information: location, date and time, Indiana Code violation.

---Officer name, agency, and ID number.

These were all fields provided by the state.

Additionally, if collected, we’d like to request the officer race and what type of enforcement took place.

The requested data will be analyzed, eventually be made available to the general public and be used for editorial purposes. This request is not being made for commercial purposes. We kindly ask the request be filled electronically. We can accept the data in many common formats, including as CSV, spreadsheet or other database formats. Data can be emailed to vram@stanford.edu or uploaded to this Dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/request/vsbcwiS2yRrWakHZ6SGI

In the event data has to be sent physically on a CD or portable drive, please mail to Peninsula Press, Stanford Journalism Program, 450 Serra Mall, Building 120, Stanford, CA 94305.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 7 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,
Vignesh Ramachandran

Vignesh Ramachandran
Managing Editor, Peninsula Press
Stanford Journalism Program
email vram@stanford.edu
phone 650.723.0703
physical mail 450 Serra Mall, Building 120, Stanford, CA 94305

Thanks Captain Bursten. Looking forward to hearing from ISP Public Records.

Dear Ms. Forbes,

Thank you for your response.

We are just requesting the raw data of traffic stops made in Indiana for the years in which you have electronic records in the last decade. We are requesting demographic data — age, sex, race – about the person stopped but are not requesting any personal identifiable information, so everything we are asking for is public record.

We are used to receiving large data files in CSV or other text/database formats, so I am happy to talk to your IT department to figure out the most efficient way to get the raw data in a way that would not involve printing and manual review of thousands of documents. Ideally, this would just be a data export in a database format (excluding the columns that personally identify the driver). Additionally, excluding particular fields is common and easy to accomplish in most database programs, taking no more than few minutes of time.

Please let me know if you’d like to discuss this by phone: 650-723-0703

Thank you,

Vignesh Ramachandran

Hi Ms. Forbes,

Thanks for the information. We will contact the administrators for the eCWS system in Indiana.

Thanks,
Vignesh Ramachandran