City of Prairie Village
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A message from the Chief -- The municipalities of Prairie Village and Mission Hills, Kansas, within the jurisdiction of the Prairie Village Police Department, have invested heavily in the technology of ALPR’s (automated license plate readers) and traffic cameras to assist in making these communities safer. With the emergence of these technological advancements, it should be noted that many traffic contacts are a result of information gathered from these devices.
Police officers are commanded to detain and or arrest in some form, motorists who are contacted and found to have warrants issued by the court. The motorists being stopped are often driving vehicles that have improper or expired registrations, which is commonly a socio-economic or vehicle licensing issue, often affecting drivers who reside in Missouri. The City of Prairie Village is situated close to the middle of three large cities -- Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, and Overland Park, Kansas. Prairie Villages’ main thoroughfares are in close proximity to all of these cities and are heavily used by motorists traveling to and from them. These cities have a substantial minority population. Kansas City, Missouri reports that 41% of its population is comprised of minority citizens. Overland Park, Kansas reports that 24.4% of its population are minority citizens. Kansas City, Kansas reports that 61% of its population is minority (data provided by U.S. Census).
I mention these statistics because I believe it is important to include them in any conversation or narrative concerning stop data or arrest statistics, considering the low number of minorities reported to reside in Prairie Village. I also believe it is a reasonable assumption that many of the minority population in the metropolitan area regularly travel through Prairie Village, as documented by our accumulated stop data over the last 24 years.
Arrest Data
While the population demographics in the tables below are based on Census groups, Prairie Village Police Department services are available to all who are in our City, no matter how long they stay.
Stop Data Collection
The Prairie Village Police Department has collected traffic and pedestrian stop data for over 20 years, and voluntarily does so each year. This is done for transparency, and if needed, provides an early warning system for an officer’s performance. We collect demographic information on each person we stop, regardless of whether they receive a ticket. We collect data in four categories -- equipment violations, license violations, moving violations, and miscellaneous.
(A note on benchmarking: Benchmarking serves as a point of reference to which measurements can be compared, or something that serves as a standard. Using Prairie Village census data to compare or benchmark against our stop data would not accurately reflect the demographics of who is using our roadways. Prairie Village has chosen to internally benchmark against its own traffic stop data. Over time, this allows us to compare an officer’s performance to the performance of similarly situated officers in Prairie Village.)
Our 2019 through 2023 stop data summaries may be reviewed here:
The figures below are for 2023. Community and metropolitan demographic data is from the US Census Bureau, 2022: