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Senate committee hears bill to extend Nevada traffic-stop study for more reliable data
Summary
Sen. Scheibel told the Senate Finance Committee that SB85 would extend an ongoing two‑year traffic‑stop study so researchers can gather additional years of data needed to draw meaningful conclusions; UNLV said at least one more year is necessary and a fiscal note lists modest DPS costs.
Sen. Melanie Scheibel, sponsor of Senate Bill 85, told the Senate Finance Committee that the bill would extend an existing traffic‑stop study so researchers can collect enough data to analyze trends.
Scheibel said the state and university partnership has produced two years of traffic‑stop records but that “with 2 years of data, it's just not enough to say” and that the UNLV School of Medicine has told sponsors it needs at least one additional year to make scientifically sound inferences.
The bill would continue the practice in which peace officers collect basic information at vehicle stops and send it to UNLV for compilation and analysis. Scheibel said the intention is to identify where stops occur most often, the most common reasons for stops, how often citations follow a stop and whether citations match the initial reasons recorded by officers.
UNLV representative Leonardo Benavides told the committee the university supports SB85 and thanked Scheibel and other legislators who worked on the language to allow more time for analysis. Scheibel acknowledged a fiscal note on the bill; she said the Department of Public Safety has indicated $3,000–$5,000 in administrative costs plus possible new personnel but questioned why new staff would be needed when the study has been carried out for two years.
Committee members asked whether the extension is intended to improve traffic‑safety policy. Scheibel said the project’s purpose is to improve traffic safety by identifying enforcement patterns, compare stop locations with collision and fatality patterns, and ensure enforcement aligns with safety needs. She emphasized UNLV’s standards for drawing conclusions from sufficiently large datasets.
The hearing drew no public opposition; a UNLV witness thanked sponsors for the extension. The committee closed the hearing on SB85 with no formal action taken during this session.
The committee's record shows discussion focused on the study's design, the relationship between law‑enforcement data collection and university analysis, and the remaining fiscal and administrative questions to be resolved if the bill advances.
