Los Angeles lawmakers told police to stop pulling drivers over for minor issues because they say it affects too many black and brown people.
The city council voted unanimously on May 6 to recommend banning “pretextual” traffic stops over issues such as broken taillights, leaving it up to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners to consider the policy, city records and local media coverage show. The vote followed a March 3 report from the board finding that the vast majority of those stopped were black or Hispanic since 2022.
Legislators affirmed that officers should still conduct pretextual stops “for traffic violations that endanger public safety and for reasonable and articulable suspicion of crimes.”
The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, an independent agency overseeing the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“Board of Police Commissioners: Get this done; we’re watching, no excuses,” Democratic Councilmember Imelda Padilla said after the May 6 vote, the Los Angeles Times reported. “This is what this generation wants.”
Current policy requires LAPD officers to state reasons for suspecting a more serious crime when pulling someone over for a minor violation as their body cameras record the interaction, the Los Angeles Times reported. The LAPD’s pretextual stops most often revolve around incorrect license plates, according to the commissioners’ March report.
Activist groups such as Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Catalyst California celebrated the May 6 vote in a joint Instagram post. “This would mean it is no longer legal for LAPD to pull us over for driving while Black under the vague cover of minor infractions and limits their ability to search us,” the post says. “Although a long time coming, this is not the end — we must get this through the final hurdle of LAPD police commission and ensure its full implementation.”
Catalyst California published its own report in April finding “racial disparities” in these stops.
“Pretextual stops inflict mental and emotional trauma, extract wealth through ticket fees and fines, and all too often result in physical harm through uses of force,” the group wrote. “These stops also have little to no bearing on traffic safety outcomes.”
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