When a non-forcible stop is conducted, MPD officers may document it on a field contact report instead of an incident report. A field contact report is also used to record general contact with a citizen. This dataset only captures the field contact type where the officer has indicated it is a stop by classifying it as a “pedestrian stop”, “vehicle stop”, or “bicycle stop.”A “stop” is a temporary detention of a person for the purpose of determining whether probable cause exists to arrest a person. A “frisk” is a limited protective search on a person to determine the presence of concealed weapons and/or dangerous instruments.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) upgraded its records management system in 2012 and 2015. During each implementation, data collection processes may have changed. For example:

- The date field for field contact reports prior to January 2, 2012 was not migrated to the current record management system. As a result, tens of thousands of records carry a date of January 1, 2012. Therefore, MPD is unable to provide field contact data prior to January 2, 2012.

- With the implementation of the most recent RMS in 2015, MPD began collecting race and ethnicity data according to the United States Census Bureau standards (https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html). As a result, Hispanic, which was previously categorized under the Race field, is currently captured under Ethnicity.

Race and ethnicity data are based on officer observation, which may or may not be accurate. Individuals are not required to provide their date of birth and/or age; therefore, there may be blank and/or unknown ages.

https://mpdc.dc.gov/stopdata