Criminal Defense Lawyers: Learn to Leverage North Carolina’s Traffic Stop Database with Ian Mance

Ian Mance has worked for almost 20 years on criminal and racial justice policy and litigation in North Carolina. His long-term projects include developing strategies for leveraging a database of law enforcement traffic stops in the state. Ian will offer a hands-on presentation about the database and its application in the courts at NCAJ’s upcoming Criminal Defense CLE. 

Twenty-five years ago, North Carolina was the first state to pass a law to create the database that logs enforcement patterns at traffic stops. Today, that database has information on 36 million stops. As Ian explains to host Amber Nimocks, the CLE will arm attorneys with strategies for using the data on behalf of clients with racial profiling claims.

Click here to learn more and register for the NCAJ’s CLE on December 13, where Ian will present on “The Use of Traffic Stop Database in Litigating Criminal Cases.”



🎙️ Featured Guest 🎙️

Name: Ian Mance

Connect: LinkedIn | Emancipate NC | Instagram | Facebook

💡 Episode Highlights 💡

[02:17] What Traffic Stops Show: The state’s database can reveal selective enforcement, commonly known as racial profiling, at traffic stops. Lawyers can access the information online.

[03:40] State v. Johnson: This was the first appellate case to consider the traffic stop data in a defense context. Ian will explain the case and its implications at the December 13 CLE.

[06:33] Treasure Trove: The traffic stop database contains information including the reason for the stop, the race of the driver and passengers, and anything notable that occurred.

[08:13] The Pattern: The database shows that Black drivers are about twice as likely to be stopped and about three to four times as likely to be searched – a pattern that has persisted over the years.

[18:26] Proactive Policing: Ian encourages police to use the database before a defense lawyer does: “I’ll say, ‘You can use this website to proactively monitor your officers.’” 

[21:39] The Greensboro Phenomenon: After a New York Times’ expose on the city’s racialized pattern of making stops for non-moving, non-safety reasons, the city prohibited police from making those types of stops. The result was “unheard of,” Ian says.

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