Welcome to the SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT of PUBLIC SAFETY website
SCDPS
Link: Public Contact Reports
Public Contact Reports
The Public Contact reports are derived from data that is
collected from state, county, and local law enforcement
agencies per the requirements of
Section 56 5 6560 of the South Carolina Code of Laws
(below).
SECTION 56 5 6560. Collection of motor vehicle stop data
regarding age, gender, and race of driver; development of
database; reports.
(A) Any time a motor vehicle is stopped by a state or local
law enforcement officer without a citation being issued or
an arrest being made, the officer who initiated the stop
must complete a data collection form designed by the
Department of Public Safety that must include information
regarding the age, gender, and race or ethnicity of the
driver of the vehicle. This information may be gathered and
transmitted electronically under the supervision of the
department which shall develop and maintain a database
storing the information collected. The department must
promulgate rules and regulations with regard to the
collection and submission of the information gathered.
(B) The Department of Public Safety shall develop and
maintain a database for the information submitted to the
department under subsection (A) and prepare a report to be
posted on the department’s website regarding motor vehicle
stops using the collected information.
(C) The General Assembly shall have the authority to
withhold any state funds or federal pass through funds from
any state or local law enforcement agency that fails to
comply with the requirements of this section.
(D) This section must be reviewed by the Senate
Transportation Committee and the House of Representatives
Education and Public Works Committee during the 2010 Session
of the General Assembly. The committees must make
recommendations of appropriate changes, if any, to this
section before the end of the 2010 Session.
Data Description
In response to Section 56 5 6560, the data included in the
Public Contact application is limited to the following:
• Only data for traffic stops where a citation is NOT issued
OR an arrest is NOT made is included.
• Only the age, gender, and race/ethnicity of the driver of
the vehicle is included.
• All data is submitted in summary form based on the various
age, gender, and race/ethnicity categories. The detail
record for every specific public contact is NOT included.
• The data is submitted on a monthly basis.
• Each individual agency is responsible for submitting their
own data.
• The first month of Public Contact data that is available
is July 2007.
Report Description
There are two reports available to query the Public Contact
data.
The first report reflects the summary totals for a specific
law enforcement agency for a specified date range.
The second report reflects the aggregated summary totals for
all law enforcement agencies for a specified date range.
NOTE: The completeness of both reports is directly dependent
on the participation of the law enforcement agencies each
month. To assist in determining the degree of completeness,
each report provides information as to whether or not all
the data has been received.
