The Modesto Police Department conducted 21,485 stops in 2024, more than double the number reported in the previous year. The data comes from the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board’s (RIPA) stop dataset, which tracks police stops across California.
California law requires all law enforcement agencies employing peace officers to submit annual data on every stop to the Attorney General under Assembly Bill 953. Since 2022, Modesto police have submitted this information each year, though Chief Brandon Gillespie previously noted that software issues affected reporting in 2022.
The form used for reporting was updated in 2024 to require officers to specify whether a stop involved a vehicle, pedestrian or bicycle, and whether the person stopped was unhoused. It also distinguished between force and non-force actions taken by officers. Completing these forms could take five to twenty minutes per stop but did not appear to reduce the number of stops made by Modesto police.
According to the data, most individuals stopped were perceived as Hispanic, which aligns with their proportion of Modesto’s population. Black individuals were stopped at twice their share of the local population and accounted for the highest percentage—24%—of stops resulting in no action by officers.
Stops involving people perceived as having limited or no English fluency made up 2.8% of total stops. Most stops occurred at night around 10 p.m., with January seeing the highest number and July the fewest. Vehicle stops were most common, followed by pedestrian encounters.
There were 698 welfare or community care-taking checks among all stops; unhoused individuals comprised about 7.3% of those stopped.
Gender identity categories recorded included cisgender man/boy (68%), cisgender woman/girl (30%), transgender man/boy, transgender woman/girl and nonbinary person. Individuals categorized as LGB made up 1.3% of all stops.
A majority of those stopped were perceived as being between ages 25 and 34; children aged one to fourteen represented a small minority of cases. Fewer than one percent were identified as having a disability.
Twenty percent of police stops responded directly to calls for service such as emergency dispatches; most others were initiated by officers themselves. Officers are required under RIPA regulations to report only one primary reason for each stop even if multiple factors apply.
Traffic violations accounted for most stops (62.6%), followed by reasonable suspicion of criminal activity (27.5%). Of those based on reasonable suspicion, nearly half stemmed from an officer witnessing a crime while about one-third involved someone matching a suspect description.
Most outcomes resulted in verbal warnings (27.2%) or no official action taken (22%). Force was used in almost 4,700 instances—most often handcuffing or flexcuffing—and firearms were pointed but never discharged during any stop recorded in this period.
Two incidents led to referrals to Immigration Customs Enforcement authorities.
Black people experienced force at higher rates compared with their share of total stops and also had higher rates of searches: thirty percent of all Black individuals stopped underwent searches compared with other groups. The main justification given for searches was incident to arrest; property searches most often sought evidence or contraband—with drug paraphernalia being most commonly seized.
