Leroy N. Soetoro
2024-12-09 20:13:22 UTC
Reply
Permalinkstops-data/?itm_source=parsely-api)
James Roy II still remembers driving in Cherry Creek some 15 years ago
when he was pulled over for an illegal turn, for turning right into the
second lane instead of the first.
A Black man in his 20s, he and his two Black friends went into police
safety mode: just get through it. But their white friend in the back seat
took a different approach, calling the officer out for racial profiling,
going on and on and on.
We were frustrated with our friend, like, Man, shut up. Stop, Roy
said. But he was like, You just pulled this car over because it has
Black people in it. He just kept going. And we were feeling so
uncomfortable. But it actually worked. They were like, OK, just go on.
Roy, now executive director of Denver Metro Community Impact, a nonprofit
focused on advancing equity, left that traffic stop without a citation
but the memory is still fresh years later.
So is the time he was pulled over for an expired plate. And the time he
was stopped because his taillight was out.
Its that kind of traffic stop that Denver police Chief Ron Thomas aimed
to curb in May when he changed his departments traffic enforcement policy
to prohibit officers from pulling drivers over solely for minor traffic
infractions that dont immediately threaten public safety.
To stop a driver for infractions such as recently expired license plates,
missing taillights or cracked windshields, officers in the Denver Police
Department must now also have a second reason to carry out the stop, like
suspecting the driver is connected to a more serious crime, or as a
response to a specific, ongoing crime trend in a particular neighborhood.
Traffic stops in Denver plunged nearly 50% after the policy change this
year, dropping from more than 18,300 stops in the four months before the
May change to 9,600 stops in the four months after the shift, according to
data provided by the police department.
Data from October, the most recent month available, shows an even bigger
monthly decline: Officers pulled over 5,787 drivers in January, compared
to just 2,354 in October a 59% decrease.
When launched, Thomas heralded the new approach to traffic enforcement as
a way to better direct police resources and to correct longstanding racial
disparities in which drivers of color were pulled over disproportionately
often. Critics said the approach would prevent officers from proactively
addressing crime, lead to less safe roads and decrease the citys revenue
from traffic tickets.
Denvers new traffic enforcement policy is designed to cut down on
pretextual traffic stops that is, traffic stops for minor infractions
that police officers then use to look for evidence of a more serious
crime, even though they have no reason to suspect a more serious crime has
been committed.
The move drew sharp criticism from the head of the union representing
Denver police officers when it was rolled out in May.
While the policy does not prohibit traffic stops, it limits the ability
to stop vehicles for lawful violations. This potentially leaves offenders
in the community, Denver Police Protective Association president Tyson
Worrell told Denver7.
He did not return requests for comment on this story.
Six months after the change, Denver police data shows that the racial
disparity in stops of Black and Latino drivers improved slightly. The city
saw an uptick in car crashes but not a major change, and crash fatalities
in the city are on track to be lower this year than last.
Revenue collected from tickets issued for expired license plates one of
the most talked-about aspects of the new policy is down compared to last
year, though city officials expect revenues to increase as recently-issued
tickets are paid in the coming months.
And while police made thousands fewer traffic stops since May, the focus
of those stops shifted away from physical problems with vehicles and
toward speeding, unsafe drivers and parking violations, the data shows.
The policy is having the expected effects, Thomas said in a recent
interview, and he believes officers are beginning to focus on more
meaningful police work.
Certainly, increasing driver safety matters, he said. Doing things that
have true impacts on crime matter. Our trust patrols matter, our Hot
Streets patrols matter, but Ive never seen any data to suggest that
making random traffic stops for minor violations has any impact on
community safety or traffic safety.
Stops plunge, enforcement shifts
Traffic stops of all types in Denver plunged almost universally after the
enforcement policy changed in May, and the reasons for traffic stops also
shifted, the data shows.
Officers conducted thousands fewer stops and issued thousands fewer
citations police wrote 9,699 citations in the four months before the
change and 5,660 in the four months after, the data shows.
But officers were more likely to issue citations during traffic stops
after the policy change, the data shows. Between January and April, about
54% of stops resulted in citations, compared to about 61% in the six
months after the policy shift.
That would indicate to me that they are stopping vehicles for the right
reasons, whether it be safety violations or to investigate some potential
crime, Thomas said.
The reasons for traffic stops also shifted. A higher percentage of traffic
stops were focused on illegal parking, speeding and reckless or careless
drivers after the policy change, while a lower percentage of stops were
focused on physical problems with vehicles.
Examining why police officers are pulling drivers over is one way to see
how the policy change is playing out, said Daniel Bodah, senior program
associate at the Vera Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on
criminal justice reform.
Not all traffic stops are the same, Bodah said.
The goal of a policy like Denvers is to shift traffic enforcement toward
offenses that directly impact safety, like driving under the influence,
and away from offenses that dont, like tinted windows, expired
registrations or loose bumpers, he added.
These dont necessarily have anything to do with the safe driving
behavior of the person driving the car, he said. So if we see a
decrease (in stops), we want to know whether that decrease is concentrated
in the types of stops targeted by the policy, or not.
In Denver, stops for speeding decreased by 35% after the change, from more
than 8,200 stops in the four months before the policy change to 5,300 in
the four months after the change.
But of all the traffic stops police made, a higher percentage of them were
for speeding after the policy change, the data shows. About 44% of all
traffic stops were for suspected speeders before the policy change. That
rose to 56% of stops in the six months after the change, even as police
pulled over fewer drivers.
The number of drivers stopped for equipment violations, including broken
headlights or obstructed windows, plunged from 1,165 during the four
months pre-policy change to 388 in the four months after the change, the
data shows. Such stops went from being 6% of all traffic stops to 4%.
The city also saw a significant decrease in stops for what the police
department calls other moving violations. Its a catch-all label that
includes any violation that doesnt have its own category, police
spokesman Doug Schepman said, including violations such as expired plates,
illegal turns and driving without a license.
The number of stops for other moving violations plunged 75% after the new
policy began, and went from 29% of all traffic stops to 13% of stops.
The number of traffic stops for right-of-way violations, red light
violations, motor vehicle theft, suspected drug offenses and lane use all
went down.
A notable exception to the across-the-board decrease was traffic stops for
suspected weapon violations: those went up, the data shows, though only by
a handful, from 33 stops during the four months before the new approach to
42 stops in the four months after.
Thomas said the new policy should funnel officers toward more serious
traffic enforcement.
Just making a stop to see what you get is not a good use of your time,
its not a successful tactic, Thomas said. Combining that justification
for making a stop with other factors time of day, description of the
vehicle, other factors that might connect it to a suspected crime or some
trend that is going on in the community that makes it more likely that
you will find contraband, or find a weapon, or contact someone who is
actually engaging in criminal behavior.
Racial disparity
Black drivers in Denver are pulled over disproportionately more often than
white drivers, police department data shows. That started to ease after
the new approach to traffic enforcement began in May.
Before the change, Black drivers made up about 15% of traffic stops,
although they represent just 9% of Denvers population, the data shows. In
the six months after the change, that dropped to 12% of all stops.
Its encouraging that the percentage dropped, said Roy, the nonprofit
director. It will be interesting to see if that stabilizes, or if certain
officers find a way to get around it anyway. But that progress is
encouraging.
White drivers a category that includes most Hispanic and Latino drivers
made up about 70% of stops before the policy change and 65% of stops
after the change. About 66% of the citys population is white.
Part of that change might be driven by the way police collect and document
drivers races. The Denver Police Department started using a new software
system to collect traffic-stop data around the time the new policy rolled
out, Thomas said.
The police data shows a big jump in drivers marked as multiracial from
about 1% of drivers stopped to 9% but that is because the new system
allowed for that selection when the old program did not, Thomas said. The
decline in drivers marked as white coincides with the increase in drivers
marked as multi-racial.
The data shows that Hispanic and Latino people, who were counted across
races, made up about 33% of traffic stops in the four months before the
policy shift and about 29% of stops after the new approach.
Hispanic and Latino people make up about 29% of Denvers residents.
Community response
Across the country, cities have seen mixed results when implementing
similar traffic enforcement policies, said Bodah, of the Vera Institute.
In Philadelphia, there was a steep drop in targeted low-level traffic
stops after a new law took effect in 2022. The city also saw a jump in
stops for tinted windows a violation that was not prohibited in the new
approach. That suggests officers began using that violation for pretextual
stops when other low-level options were prohibited, Bodah said.
In Fayetteville, North Carolina, officers made more traffic stops for
safety violations when they changed their approach between 2013 and 2016,
and traffic crashes deceased by 13%. The city also saw a 28% reduction in
fatal crashes, researchers found. The change had no impact on non-traffic
crime, the researchers discovered.
Nowhere, Bodah said, have researchers found a shift away from low-level
traffic enforcement creates an increase in overall crime. In Denver,
violent gun crime has been falling this year when compared to last.
Critics worried that Denver police would be hobbled when responding to
crime after the policy began in May, and the new approach faced immediate
pushback from the police union and some community members and leaders.
Residents in Denver District 10 the central city neighborhoods most
often express a desire for more traffic enforcement, not less, Denver City
Councilman Chris Hinds said. He generally feels laws should be enforced.
If we dont want laws then we should get them off the books, as opposed
to just pretending like they dont exist, he said, noting that Denver
decriminalized jaywalking in 2023 because of racial disparities.
At that time, 41% of people cited for jaywalking in Denver were Black,
which Hinds noted was a much larger disparity than the one seen in police
traffic stops.
Hinds is not aware of any active effort to review the citys traffic laws
for such a change, and said any such review would need to include
significant community input.
Impact on traffic safety, finances
While traffic stops plummeted almost 50% between January and August,
vehicle crashes in Denver increased by about 10%, according to police
data. Crash fatalities, though, are down.
The city recorded 5,667 crashes between January and April, then saw 6,240
crashes between May and August, after the policy change, according to
police data. So far this year, 67 people died in crashes, compared to 87
in all of 2023.
The data shows crashes dipped when traffic stops increased in July, and
went up when traffic stops decreased in August.
Jill Locantore, executive director of Denver Streets Partnership, a
nonprofit focused on pedestrian safety, said it makes sense that the 50%
drop in traffic stops didnt lead to an equal and opposite jump in
crashes.
Thats not surprising to us at all, she said. We know the fundamental
cause of traffic violence in Denver is unsafe street design, and you cant
correct for unsafe street design through enforcement.
Traffic enforcement can be a stopgap measure to improve safety on the way
to redesigned streets, she added, but automated enforcement like speed
or red-light cameras is more effective at changing driver behavior than
individual traffic stops, she said.
Earlier this year, Mayor Mike Johnston pledged to bring automated speed
camera enforcement to two high crash corridors in the city: Federal
Boulevard in south Denver and on Alameda Avenue. Locantore is hopeful
those cameras will make a difference.
It can be present 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she said. It is
predictable and understandable. People know that if they speed on this
street they will get a ticket, so they change their behavior. Whereas
officer-initiated enforcement is inherently sporadic.
So far this year, fines collected by the city for expired plate tickets
a particular class of citation that drew attention after the policy change
is trending lower than the revenue collected in 2023.
The city has collected $5.3 million for tickets written between January
and November 2023, compared to $4.6 million for that time frame this year.
However, ticket revenue is collected on a rolling basis and this years
revenue will increase as more older tickets are paid, said Nancy Kuhn,
spokeswoman for the citys Department of Transportation and
Infrastructure.
It could be a net positive for the city if fewer of Denvers poorest
residents are forced to pay fines for low-level traffic infractions, Bodah
said.
A lot of times people are not renewing the registration or fixing the
windshield because they dont have the income yet to do it, he said. And
then getting a ticket on top of that can be really debilitating. We still
see a benefit to that sort of lightening of the load on people having
(police) interference for those kinds of trivial, non-safety related
infractions.
The long-term impact of Denvers new approach to traffic enforcement
remains to be seen but what is clear is that a growing number of police
departments are putting similar policies in place, said Chuck Wexler,
executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit
organization that aims to improve the profession of policing.
Police departments are citing both community relations and staffing
shortages as the reasons for the change, he added.
In some cities, police now give drivers a voucher to fix their vehicle
instead of a ticket and a fine, Wexler said.
Its part of rebuilding trust with the community in the last four or five
years, in the post-George Floyd period we are in, he said. I can tell
you, if you go to a community meeting and people complain about being
overpoliced, theyre usually referring to things like this, these low-
level stops.
--
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.