Denver Police To Start Collecting Racial Data From Traffic Stops

DENVER (CBS4)- Police in Denver will soon collect racial data from some traffic and pedestrian stops. That information will be used to look for any biased policing within the department.

Denver Police Chief Robert White said there is no definitive plan on how the information will be collected but hopes to have a policy in place by the end of the year.

White described how the data collection would work at a news conference on Monday morning. He said information like race and gender would likely be collected from traffic and pedestrian stops, specifically those with a suspicious element to them.

"It needs to be something that can be done through technology, so the officer can makes the traffic stop will simply be able to get back in his car and hopefully through his computer click the box to say, 'This is where I made the stop, this is why the stop was made, this is the race of the individual, this is how long the stop took.' Something along those lines," said White.

White said given the current climate, this type of information is more important than ever when it comes to community accountability.