BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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Home | Law Enforcement | Police-Public Contacts
Police-Public Contacts
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The nature and extent of contact between police officers and residents varies by whether the contact was initiated by the police or by the resident.  These contacts occur for many reasons: police provide services to community members, residents seek information or report crimes to police officers, residents are passengers or drivers during a traffic stop, police could make arrests, search residents, their vehicles or their homes, and officers could use or threaten use of physical force.

BJS measures the nature and extent of these contacts by surveying individuals in a nationally representative sample of households.  Unlike other measures of police behavior, this survey is based on the reported experiences and perspectives of surveyed residents.  It does not require the participation of law enforcement agencies or officers and it captures behavior from many jurisdictions and throughout the entire year.

Summary findings

  • In 2005, an estimated 19% of U.S. residents age 16 or older had a face-to-face contact with a police officer, a decrease from 21% of residents who had contact with police in 2002. 
  • Of the 43.5 million persons who had face-to-face contact with police in 2005, 74.5% had just one contact, 17.5% had two contacts and the remaining 11% had three or more contacts.
  • The total number of contacts was 71.1 million, with an average of 1.6 face-to-face contacts per resident.
  • Of persons who had contact with the police in 2005, about 9 in 10 felt the officer or officers behaved properly.  Blacks (82.2%) were less likely than whites (91.6%) to feel that police acted properly during a contact.
  • Of persons who had contact with police in 2005, 60% indicated that their most recent contact was initiated by the police.  The remaining 40% were self-initiated contacts.

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Data Collections & Surveys

  • Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS)
    Provides detailed information on the nature and characteristics of face-to-face contacts between police and the public, including the reason for and outcome of the contact. The PPCS interviews a nationally representative sample of more than 60,000 residents age 16 or older as a supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. The survey enables BJS to estimate the likelihood of a driver being pulled over in a traffic stop and the percentage of all contacts that involve the use of force by police.
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