Police departments across the country have dramatically decreased traffic stops in recent years. Since 2015, traffic stops have decreased 70 percent in Austin, Texas; 62 percent in Denver, Colorado; 51 percent in Los Angeles, California; 49 percent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 91 percent in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the New York Times.
The result is predictable: people are dying. From 2019 to 2022, there was a 31 percent increase in road deaths in Austin, Texas; 21 percent increase in Denver, Colorado; 28 percent increase in Los Angeles, California; 58 percent increase in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 15 percent increase in Nashville, Tennessee.
The decrease in traffic stops stems from the growing popularity of the viewpoint that traffic stops pose a danger to civilians and can be discriminatory. After the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, traffic stops drastically decreased, as activists and people in the media argued that the incident demonstrated a pattern of police brutality and racial discrimination.
In Ferguson, traffic stops went off a cliff after the shooting of Michael Brown, falling 88 percent. Other cities, including Louisville, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and St. Paul, Minnesota, followed this same pattern after the incident in Ferguson.
In 2014, the year Brown was shot, 32,744 Americans died in car crashes. By 2022, 42,795 Americans died in crashes.
In the aftermath of Ferguson, activists urged police departments to decrease traffic stops. They claimed that traffic stops disproportionately target minorities, escalate situations unnecessarily, increase the risk of injury, erode community trust, and do not lead to a reduction in crime or improved road safety. Activists also claimed that resources would be better aimed at community programs, mental health services, and addressing the root causes of crime.
One such activist group is the Policing Project, which operates out of New York University School of Law. The deputy director of the Policing Project, Maria Ponomarenko, demanded that the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department decrease its number of traffic stops. “It is encouraging to see the numbers of stops come down significantly in recent months,” she said. “We urged MNPD to consider alternative strategies, including more targeted, community-based approaches.”
The Policing Project published a report in 2018 claiming that “traffic stops are not an effective strategy for reducing crime.” The report recommended that the Nashville police department “reduce the number of traffic stops” and “acknowledge black residents have been disproportionately affected by MNPD’s stop practices.” Traffic stops in Nashville drastically decreased immediately following the death of Michael Brown; traffic deaths have correspondingly increased.
Many of these activists treat the reasons for traffic stops as nonissues. Speeding, expired registration, equipment violations such as broken tail lights, improper lane changes, failure to yield, and distracted driving are seen as minor problems that do not warrant a traffic stop, which activists believe poses the real danger to citizens.
But stopping these traffic violations is key to maintaining safe roads. Police officers are the only ones preventing people from engaging in dangerous driving. Once police departments allow people to systematically speed or drive distracted without fear of reprisal, people will take the ground given to them and engage in these dangerous behaviors, or escalate to even more reckless driving. Government data shows that speeding contributes to about one-third of traffic fatalities, while distracted driving is a factor in roughly 10 percent of fatal accidents. When police departments enforce smaller offenses, like broken headlights, they are able to improve safety and discourage further poor decisions.
Currently, we have a decrease in enforcement of even the most serious traffic offenses. DUI arrests have fallen since 2010. Correspondingly, deaths from alcohol-related crashes have increased. In 2022, 13,524 people died from such crashes in the United States.
Ideological claims that police officers harm minorities when they enforce traffic laws will only harm the very minorities that activists claim to be protecting.
Police officers need to get back on the roads and issue tickets for everything from broken headlights to speeding. Lives are counting on it.
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