Public Contact Reports | SCDPS
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South Carolina Department of Public Safety

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. You may access both of those at this link: Public Contact Reports

  • The first report reflects the summary totals for a specific law enforcement agency for a specified date range (Public Contact Report-012).
  • The second report reflects the aggregated summary totals for all law enforcement agencies for a specified date range (Public Contact Report-008).

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.