CNN Special Report – TRAFFIC STOP: Dangerous Encounters

Reported by Sara Sidner, Airs Sunday, January 30 at 9pmET

In a one-hour special, CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner explores traffic stops and the psychological, social, and financial trauma they cause Black drivers who get caught up in a system fraught with racial bias. The disturbing images of unarmed Black men killed during traffic stops, and the names that go with those images: Philando Castile, Daunte Wright, Walter Scott, and more, dot the canvas of a system that does not treat Black drivers the same as White drivers. Black drivers are twice as likely as White drivers to be pulled over, and four times as likely to be searched, according to a study out of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. This extreme disparity is difficult to explain with legitimate law enforcement objectives. Indeed, the data show that contraband is found less often on Black drivers than on White drivers.

Sidner examines the major reforms taking place by cities and police departments and the push back from police unions who warn crime will rise because of them. She talks to the Police Chief of Oakland, California, the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia, as well as Katie Bryant, Daunte Wright’s mother, and Valerie Castile, Philando Castile’s mother. Sidner learns how a seemingly mechanical system engineered to manage and limit the dangers of automobile usage—speeding, drunk driving, etc.—has turned into a mechanism that unfairly targets and traumatizes Black drivers.

TRAFFIC STOP: Dangerous Encounters will air Sunday, January 30 at 9pmET on CNN and will also be simulcast on CNN International.

TRAFFIC STOP: Dangerous Encounters will stream live for subscribers via CNNgo (CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV) and on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android. The event will be available on-demand beginning Monday, January 31 via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms and CNN mobile apps.

Press Contact:  Shimrit.Sheetrit@warnermedia.com