RPT: ANALYSIS - Reducing US Police Role In Traffic Enforcement Could Help Prevent Deadly Encounters

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2021) Initiatives to relieve police officers in the United States from carrying out routine traffic stops could help reduce the chances of deadly encounters with people of color, amid rising public anger and mass protests triggered by recent officer-involved fatal shootings, US legal experts told Sputnik.

Mass protests broke out in the city of Brooklyn Center in Minnesota this week, after a white female police officer shot dead a 20-year-old African American man named Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon. The local police department said the shooting was an accident.

Wright was originally pulled over for having an expired registration plate on the vehicle, but then officers discovered there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Wright for missing a court appearance earlier this month and tried to take him into custody.

According to the bodycam footage released by police, Wright could be seen standing next to the driver's side door of a white sedan while a police officer tried to put handcuffs on him. When another officer came to assist the arrest, Wright made a sudden move and got back into the driver's seat of the car. That's when officer Kimberly Potter, 48, joined her colleagues to try to restrain Wright and fired a single shot that killed him. The video showed Potter thought she was firing her taser instead of her handgun.

The tragedy has a potential to further contribute to the discussion over police powers, rekindled by the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last May. Back then, cities and states across US announced police reforms. The liberal city of Berkeley in Northern California, in particular, banned officers from stopping drivers for low-level offenses.

LESS POLICE CONTACT WITH CITIZENS

The tragic death of Wright is just the latest example of what traffic stops over minor traffic violations could lead to.

Caron Nazario, an African American who serves as a second lieutenant in the US Army, sued two police officers in Virginia this week, after the officers pointed guns at him and pepper sprayed him in the face during a traffic stop last December.

According to the bodycam footage from the scene, Nazario could be seen wearing his army uniform with both of his hands extending outside the side window of his black SUV. The officers pointed their guns at him and demanded him to exit his vehicle.

When he did not comply in a timely manner because he couldn't unfasten his seatbelt while holding up both of his hands, one of the officers fired pepper spray at his face and dragged him out of the car. He was arrested on the scene. The officers said Nazario was "eluding police" after he did not stop his car when the officers tried to pull him over. Nazario said he wanted to drive to a well-lit area so the officers could see the temporary license plate stick to the back window of his SUV.

One of the police officers involved in Nazario's arrest, identified as Joe Gutierrez, has been dismissed.

Traffic stop is one of the most common ways for a US citizen to interact with police officers. For the people of color, especially young African American men, such interactions could be unpleasant, like in Nazario's case, or even deadly, in Wright's case.

US legal experts suggested that reducing such interactions between armed police officers and civilians, especially the people of color, over minor traffic violations could help minimize a possibility of deadly encounters.

"I strongly favor barring the police from making routine stops of automobiles [or pedestrians] using their police authority unless they have a firm basis for believing that the auto in question is present danger to traffic safety or they have probable cause [again a firm evidentiary basis] that people in the car or walking have committed a crime," Jonathan Simon, a professor of criminal justice law at the University of California, Berkeley, told Sputnik.

The expert noted that routine traffic stops could become very dangerous for people of color.

"Currently US law gives police wide authority to stop autos based on any traffic violation [which as often noted almost everybody commits at some point while driving on nearly every trip, e.g., changing lanes without signaling] as well as 'reasonable suspicion' [hardly any evidentiary basis, just some basis] that a person has committed a crime. As you note, this raises clear dangers of misunderstanding and lethal violence especially for people of color," he said.

The expert argued that such routine traffic stops are not useful in fighting violent crimes.

"There is very little evidence that this kind of aggressive policing (whether auto stops on pretext of traffic violations or stop and frisk) contributes much to reducing violent crime," he said.

Professor Simon concluded that reducing contact with police officers is the best solution.

"Avoiding police contact with citizens is the best way to assure safety. That says a lot about why defunding the police and finding more appropriate 21st century public safety agencies is a high priority," he said.

A number of US cities, including Berkeley in California and Cambridge in Massachusetts, have proposed reform initiatives to replace armed police officers with unarmed officers to conduct routine traffic stops.

Professor Simon applauded the initiative taken by local officials in Berkeley.

"Berkeley's is a good first step.

I would basically limit police to responding to reports of serious crimes [not small property offenses like the one involved in George Floyd's arrest]. If they spent more time taking reports from people they might actually become the community safety officers they've claimed to be for some time," he said.

The expert illustrated what he sees as an advantage of deploying unarmed officers for routine traffic stops.

"As for traffic stops, the main danger comes from a person in the car fearing they will be arrested on an outstanding warrant and trying to run or resist arrest. If people know that the person stopping them is not a police officer and is not going to carry out an arrest, there is very little danger," he argued.

According to a research report from the Public Policy Institute of California, African Americans are being stopped by police officers much more frequently. After examining data of 1.8 million stops carried out by police officers in a number of counties in California, the results showed African Americans made up slightly more than 15 percent of all stops, while only accounting for six percent of the local population in those counties.

Traffic stops become more dangerous, or sometime deadly, for people of color, especially young African American men because of additional orders from the police officers, other US legal experts pointed out.

"A common precursor to traffic stops escalating into violence against officers was the invocation of police authority in some way during the stop beyond asking for basic information, requesting documentation, or running a records check. Common examples included ordering motorists out of vehicles, touching or handcuffing drivers or passengers, reaching inside the vehicles, telling drivers or passengers that they were under arrest, or asking for permission to search the vehicle or occupants," Jordan Blair Woods, a criminologist and legal scholar at the University of Arkansas school of Law, told Sputnik.

In the tragic death of Wright, he was shot after the police officers tried to arrest him over an outstanding warrant.

Professor Woods suggested that hiring unarmed traffic monitors and limiting the traffic stops to serious violations could greatly reduce the chances of such incidents.

"Traffic monitors would not be vested with authority to take these additional actions that are products of traditional police powers. Perhaps if traffic stops were just about traffic, and not criminal investigations, then these invocations of police authority would no longer be necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. In this regard, removing traffic enforcement from the police reduces possibilities for traffic stops to escalate in ways that jeopardize civilian as well as officer safety," he said.

COMPLIANCE ENFORCEMENT DISPARITY

One of the most common counterarguments supporting the actions of police during the deadly traffic stops is that the tragedies would not have happened if the victims simply complied with orders from the officers.

In the case of army lieutenant Nazario being pepper sprayed in the face during a traffic stop, the police officer appeared to be upset when he did not follow orders when being told to exit his vehicle.

But professor Simon argued that US police officers have always been racially biased when it comes to demanding compliance during traffic stops.

"The insistence on compliance is heavily racially shaded. Police forgive all kinds of non-compliance by white people. It's less personal racism (although that exists) and more the focus of policing on Black people (and other non-White people) as a preemptive criminal threat," he insisted.

Bodycam footage released by the police department in Genoa Township in Michigan about a traffic stop last December arguably demonstrated a disparity in compliance enforcement.

During the traffic stop, the driver, a white male, was uncooperative and refused to follow orders to exit his vehicle. One of the police officers on the scene saw that the driver had a gun next to him.

When the officers pointed their guns at the driver and demanded he exit his vehicle, he challenged the officers by asking if their bodycams were recording their encounter.

"Do me a favor. Just please step out of the car. That's all what I'm asking you to do," one of the police officers said.

"You're asking me at gun point. Conceal your weapons please. That's not how we act civilly," the driver said.

"Just relax. Please get out of the car. Listen, we can figure this out," the officer continued.

When one of the officers grabbed the driver's left arm and tried to take him out of the vehicle, the driver reached for his gun.

"You're violating my rights. Let go of me," the driver shouted.

"You just put your hands on a gun, sir," one of the officers said.

"You pulled the gun on me unconstitutionally, I did it [reached for my gun] in response!" the driver said.

The driver went on to stress that he had Second Amendment rights to own his gun.

After more than three minutes of verbal arguments with police officers, the driver shut the door of his vehicle and drove away.

The police department in Genoa Township said the driver was arrested later after a length pursuit. The police chief of Genoa Township commended the two police officers for showing "great restraint and professionalism" during the traffic stop.