Quit Banning Traffic Stops
Quit Banning Traffic Stops
Traffic Enforcement Curbs Crime and Saves Lives
Let’s get the bottom-line up front. Pretextual traffic stops for so-called minor violations, vital and completely legal, have been vilified by activists and politicians lying by painting them as racist.
This traffic enforcement, allegedly practiced by police officers of all races, gender and ethnic background, disproportionally impacts black African Americans and communities of color.
In the most bizarre mash up, police unions demonstrate more care for citizens than these communities care for themselves. In economics, when you see a group adopt an ideological position contrary to their self-interests and safety, it is seriously concerning.
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia was the first major city to enact laws to not enforce traffic laws. District Attorney Larry Krasner has been effective in failing to prosecute both minor and major crimes, so the last thing the City of Brotherly Love needs is another initiative that enables lawlessness and disorder.
Lots of blurred lines and deliberately misinterpreted data created a movement to ban police from enforcing supposed low-level traffic offenses. These would include equipment violations and registration issues. In the most illogical arrangement of core incentives, the Philadelphia police union is suing the city to use traffic stops to protect the community, while the elected leaders are passing the ordinance, which applies to all races and ethnicities, to resolve racial inequities and improve police community relations.
Pittsburg, PA
In Pittsburg, an important and vital city on the opposite side of Pennsylvania, a recurring duo of themes in the argument for curtailing police traffic stops are it breaks the community’s confidence in the police and it removes the risk of escalation.
City Council Member Reverend Ricky Burgess, a black African American father of three sons, Pittsburg politician, and community leader bears witness to the narrative that black male deaths needlessly occur due to ‘ticky-tacky’ minor infractions. His interview with Dan Abrams on Newsnation shared his opinion that fatal encounters were borne of the law enforcement activity of enforcing vehicle registration violations (and why pay insurance if you’re not renewing your tag) and perpetuation of the myth that suspect actions did not dictate officer response to resistance or attack.
Ann Arbor, MI
WalletHub considers Ann Arbor to be the best educated city in the nation. However, this affluent college town is especially concerned with racial disparities in policing. Comparatively, the city is doing a poor job with non-traffic crime considering its size and population. Curbing ‘minor’ infractions, compared to immediate safety traffic violation is their strategy.
Learning from police reform pioneer Lansing, who’s officers radio adjacent jurisdictions to act on their ‘minor’ infractions, Ann Arbor has created a major campaign to enable citizens to complain on their officers should anyone find their traffic stop improper. To make this easy to understand, a person with no license plate, no insurance, a cracked windshield and a dangling bumper could complain on an officer and have their claim sustained.
Following enactment on July 6, citizens can file formal complaints against city officers for any violations of the city’s new driving equality ordinance, which aims to curtail police traffic stops to prevent racial profiling and avoid disparate impacts on people of color.
Berkeley, California
The New York Times reported on Feb. 24, 2021, "Berkeley became what was believed to be the first city in the nation to plan to prohibit police officers from conducting traffic stops and shift that responsibility to unarmed members of a department of transportation."
HuffPost wrote, "Berkeley, California, To End Traffic Stops By Cops For Low-Level Offenses."But those characterizations don't appear to be a completely accurate depiction of the city's efforts to reform policing, according to data released by the city on traffic stops and specifics on the new traffic enforcement initiative. Since the policy went into effect in mid-2021, data indicates that traffic citations have increased by about 200 per year.
Traffic Stops Disrupt Crime And Save Lives
Campaigns I organized and observed included getting all our self-initiated units, officers who mission specific and not assigned to non-emergency calls for service to get out to specific areas and focus on guns and drugs. The units made about 15 stops per hour and a lot of cannabis was passed through the driver window and offered for destruction.
Occasionally we would meet traffic offenders who either wanted to provide information on a poison peddler, sometimes for public welfare or to harm the competition. Some, out of spite, hatred of justice, or tyranny of will, wanted us to take them to jail and seize their car for forfeiture.
Traffic stops were the primary source for the seizure of hundreds of crime guns per year.
Restricting The Police Will Cause Unfavorable Outcomes
Curtailing police traffic encounters is a counterintuitive tactic during a time when the roads are statistically becoming more deadly. Last year, according to the NHTSA the first quarter of 2022 experienced a record 7% increase in traffic fatalities. Besides national stats, we are seeing an increase of crashes resulting in serious injuries in many cities as well as roadway and intersection takeovers. We have also seen increased crime as other forms of proactive policing have been curbed.
Disparity is the false justification for these local laws. Population data contrasted with traffic stop data does not provide the necessary evidence. Considering crime and arrest rates and hold them up against traffic stop data and you can expect to find a correlation.
Also consider how many vehicles are stopped in Camden, NJ that are from Philadelphia, PA. Wherever you live, you’re probably aware of people who travel to engage in criminal enterprise either as a vendor or customer. The service population of a city does not necessarily match the static population.
We know that crime affects every ethnic group and economic strata, it also disproportionally impacts communities. Real estate agents are frequently asked about crime data but not for a city and county, but instead the neighborhood where the property is located. It is universally understood that one area is going to have a lower or higher crime rate than another. No one is immune.
Bob Scales, CEO of Police Strategies LLC, recently wrote: “The anti-police activists say that the disparities are caused by officer bias and systemic discrimination. That would mean that the law enforcement profession in these four countries attracts racists and provides a conducive environment for officers to practice widespread racial profiling and discrimination. That is certainly possible, but highly unlikely given all the data we have. When you compare the race of crime victims and reported crime suspects with police stops, arrests, searches and uses of force, the racial disparities are greatly reduced or vanish entirely.”
Does Nothing to Address The Disparity, And They Know That
Plus, the disparity will continue with the violations that officers are allowed to conduct traffic stops. If you think about it, the exclusion of these minor violations applies to all races and ethnic groups. Traffic stop data in the future should continue to fall in approximately the same percentages with black African Americans overrepresented by double their static population in each jurisdiction. We can’t expect a dramatic shift without other factors at play. In fact, we will likely see overall rise in citizen police encounters on more serious traffic offenses as officers are disincentivized to let a minor violation be scrutinized. Officers who may have let an improper lane change go with a warning and a loud muffler ticket are now compelled to write the ticket for the moving violation. This may be what is happening in Berkeley.
When this gets proposed in your community, let everyone know what has happened elsewhere in the country. Do whatever you can to get the facts in the hands of the right people and hope that your police leaders will stand up for their officers.
Please continue to keep all our frontline officers in your prayers!
REFERENCES
https://dan-abrams.com/about-me/
https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_aa66377a-7d5d-11ed-980c-17ec1e625fce.html