Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What percentage of people are killed by the police during a traffic stop?
Executive summary
Available sources do not provide a single, definitive percentage of people killed by police specifically during traffic stops; however, multiple datasets and analyses give partial figures and context. Mapping Police Violence counted that since 2017 more than 800 people have been killed after being pulled over, and one study cited that traffic stops accounted for roughly 7% of all police killings in a recent year [1]. Other sources focus on officer fatalities during traffic stops or traffic-related line-of-duty deaths rather than civilian deaths [2] [3].
1. What different measurements exist — and why they don’t produce one clean percentage
There are at least two different ways reporters and researchers count “deaths related to traffic stops”: (a) civilian deaths resulting from police encounters that began as traffic stops, and (b) law‑enforcement line‑of‑duty deaths that occur during traffic enforcement or traffic incidents. Mapping Police Violence aggregates civilian killings tied to traffic stops and reported “more than 800” such deaths since 2017 and estimated that traffic stops produced roughly 7% of police killings in one recent year [1]. By contrast, the Office of Justice Programs and memorial groups like the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) catalogue officer deaths — for example, analyses of officers killed during traffic stops and traffic‑related officer fatalities — which are different phenomena measured in separate datasets [2] [3].
2. Civilian deaths during traffic stops — what the available reporting shows
The BBC’s compilation of Mapping Police Violence data reports “more than 800 people” killed after being pulled over since 2017 and places traffic stops at about 7% of police killings in a recent year, giving a rough sense of scale but not an annual percentage of all traffic stops ending in death [1]. Mapping Police Violence covers cases of fatal police force, but it does not enumerate the total number of traffic stops each year, so one cannot compute a direct fatality-per-stop rate from that figure alone based on these sources [1].
3. Officer fatalities during traffic stops and traffic-related incidents — separate but related risk
Research and memorial reporting emphasize that traffic enforcement is dangerous for officers. A DOJ/Office of Justice Programs analysis of FBI data found many officers killed in traffic stops were shot while approaching or exiting their vehicles, and characterized offender intent in a majority of those cases (e.g., “violators intended to kill the police officers in 60 percent of the cases”) [2]. NLEOMF reporting and news summaries show traffic‑related fatalities among officers rose substantially in some recent years (traffic fatalities among officers rose from 31 in 2023 to 46 in 2024 in one report), illustrating another dimension of harm connected to traffic enforcement [3].
4. Why you can’t reliably produce “percentage killed during a stop” from these sources
To calculate “what percentage of people are killed by the police during a traffic stop” you need two compatible numbers: a numerator (number of civilians killed by police during traffic stops in a defined period) and a denominator (total number of traffic stops in that same period). The sources provided give partial numerators (Mapping Police Violence totals and BBC summary) and discuss officer deaths or traffic‑related fatalities, but they do not supply a consistent, matched denominator of total stops per year. The University of Illinois Chicago project notes that more than 50 million people have contact with police in a year and that many of those are traffic stops, but it does not give a precise national annual stop total that would permit calculating a death rate per stop from the other datasets [4].
5. Estimates, caveats, and what additional data would be needed
If you want an actual fatality rate per stop, you need a certified national count of traffic stops (or a credible estimate of them) and a matched count of civilian killings originating from those stops for the same year. The sources here — Mapping Police Violence/BBC for civilian killings [1], OJP/FBI analyses for officer deaths in stops [2], and police contact overviews from UIC [4] — show the pieces exist across institutions but are not combined in the supplied material. Researchers often avoid giving a single “percent killed per stop” because stops are so numerous (tens of millions per year) while fatal civilian killings are relatively uncommon, and because data collection methods and definitions differ across datasets [4] [1].
6. Bottom line and how to interpret headlines
Available reporting shows that traffic stops are a recurring locus of deadly encounters for both civilians and officers, with Mapping Police Violence documenting hundreds of civilian deaths tied to stops since 2017 and law‑enforcement memorials documenting notable traffic‑related LODDs for officers [1] [3]. But the exact percentage of traffic stops that result in a civilian being killed by police is not stated in the supplied sources, and cannot be calculated from them without additional matched data on total stops and consistent case definitions [4] [1]. If you’d like, I can assemble an explicit calculation plan and list the precise data points you’d need and where to seek them.