The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted in favor of new restrictions on so-called \u201cpretextual\u201d traffic stops, signaling a growing impatience with the Police Commission\u2019s failure to rein in a controversial LAPD tactic that critics say enables racial discrimination.<\/p>\n
The vote requests that the department\u2019s all-civilian watchdog adopt new guidelines similar to San Francisco, which bars police officers from pulling people over for broken taillights and other minor equipment violations unless there is a safety threat. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoard of Police Commissioners: Get this done; we\u2019re watching, no excuses,\u201d said Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who shared stories of her late father being stopped by police with no explanation. \u201cThis is what this generation wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the new policy were adopted, LAPD officers would be prohibited from stopping motorists, bicyclists or pedestrians for minor violations \u201cexcept in cases where the violation poses a significant and imminent safety risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unanimous vote followed sometimes emotional testimony at a City Council meeting from Angelenos about how their lives had been shaken by discriminatory traffic stops and searches.<\/p>\n
Several speakers pointed to a growing body of research showing that minor stops disproportionately affect Black and brown motorists and do little to combat violent crime while eroding public trust. In recent years, there have been several high-profile traffic stops that resulted in officers or drivers being killed. <\/p>\n
The current LAPD policy, in place since 2022, requires officers to record themselves on their body-worn cameras stating the reasons for suspecting a more serious crime had occurred when making a stop for a minor infraction. <\/p>\n
The measure passed Wednesday stops short of a categorical ban that some have sought, but was still met with cautious optimism by traffic safety reformers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps place the city of Los Angeles on a path of ending racial profiling by LAPD,\u201d said Chauncee Smith, of Catalyst California, a group that advocates for racial justice. <\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s group recently released a report that said such stops have continued to disproportionately affect Black and Latino drivers.<\/p>\n
Smith said the new policy advanced by the City Council represents \u201ca more formal, explicit prohibition,\u201d adding that he hopes the Police Commission will ultimately give officers even less discretion in deciding when to make stops.<\/p>\n
In a brief statement after the vote, Mayor Karen Bass thanked Harris-Dawson for his \u201cleadership and dedication in moving this updated policy forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will work closely with the Police Commission and Chief [Jim] McDonnell to implement it and to provide officers with appropriate training,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Any changes to the policy will probably draw strong challenges from within the LAPD and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the powerful union that represents the city\u2019s rank-and-file officers. <\/p>\n
McDonnell has publicly defended the stops as an essential law enforcement tool in the department\u2019s fight against guns, gangs and drugs. He and some transportation safety advocates have argued that persistent traffic deaths \u2014 road fatalities have in recent years outpaced the number of homicides \u2014 indicate the city needs to crack down harder on reckless driving.<\/p>\n
The proposed change comes against the backdrop of a broader effort by city leaders to wrest greater oversight of the LAPD from the Police Commission. A spokesperson for the civilian body said it would evaluate how to proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board intends to place this item on a forthcoming agenda to enable a full and transparent discussion of the Department\u2019s pretextual stop policy, which will include the recommendations from the City Council,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
McDonnell did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The vote was the latest move in a broader push to remove police officers from traffic enforcement. Some advocates have argued that more punitive approaches that prioritize arrests and traffic citations do little to keep city streets safe; instead, they argue the city should invest in unarmed civilian workers and speed bumps, roundabouts and other street modifications that could help curb unsafe driving.<\/p>\n
Adrienna Wong, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Wednesday\u2019s vote showed city leaders taking action on an issue that was personal to them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think what you saw today in council was the council members have lived experiences and are hearing from their constituents and are voting to represent their constituents in a way that the Police Commission has not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted in favor of new restrictions on so-called \u201cpretextual\u201d traffic stops,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":712409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[318935,1582,276,318934,2451,5310,3040,2961,29170,140067,224,5337,11032,318933,38177,114255,7981,55480,13235,15613],"class_list":{"0":"post-778788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-brief-statement","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-chauncee-smith","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-city-council","14":"tag-department","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lapd-officer","17":"tag-lapd-policy","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-mcdonnell","21":"tag-minor-stop","22":"tag-new-policy","23":"tag-police-commission","24":"tag-police-officer","25":"tag-traffic-stop","26":"tag-vote","27":"tag-wednesday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116531331753054477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}