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Field and Traffic Stops

We are committed to serving and protecting our community in a fair and impartial manner. Part of our commitment includes public data about our field and traffic stops and service through transparency.

Stopping members of the community for traffic enforcement, or any other reason, based solely on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, socioeconomic background, or gender is illegal, unconstitutional, unprofessional, and inconsistent with the values, ethics, and ideals of the police profession and the University.

The department will fully uphold its obligation to the community to fairly and impartially investigate incidents of racial profiling or other police misconduct. We also want you to know that you have the right to provide feedback about an officer’s actions. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

What type of data is collected?

We contribute to the IDOT platform for traffic and pedestrian stop data for law enforcement agencies.

Field stops

Field stop state-required data includes the way in which calls are initiated. Field stops originate in one of two ways:

  • Citizen request for service – A citizen contacts NUPD either by phone or flagging down an officer and requests them to investigate a situation involving a person. Either the person is pointed out by a citizen or a physical description is provided to the officer(s) by the citizen.
  • Officer initiated – An officer while on duty identifies circumstances that result in stopping an individual to conduct a further investigation of the situation. The legal standard for initiating a stop is a minimum of reasonable suspicion.

Traffic stops

Whenever a law enforcement officer issues a uniform traffic citation or warning citation for an alleged violation of the Illinois Vehicle Code, they shall record state-required data.