Story at a glance
- The Berkeley City Council will decide on a proposal Tuesday night regarding the option to make traffic stops unarmed.
- Black and Latinx drivers are more likely to be pulled over than white drivers.
As cities and states across the country reckon with the racism and inequality within their institutions, Berkeley is now considering a proposal to make traffic police unarmed city employees. The move aims to prevent traffic stops from becoming fatal.
Recent data shows that Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over, potentially as a result of racial profiling on behalf of law enforcement. Cases have emerged where Black Americans are pulled over under dubious circumstances and later died at the hands of police, as seen with the cases of Sandra Bland in 2015 in Texas and Philando Castille in 2016 in Minnesota.
Given this history, the Berkeley City Council heard a proposal on Tuesday to create divisions between traffic enforcement from law enforcement officers, The Associated Press (AP) reports. It would be the first of its kind in the U.S.
“It’s been an incredible cry from the community to look at law enforcement, to look at the role of police in this country and in this city and calling on us, especially as a very progressive city, to lead the way and trying some new things, pushing the edge when we can,” Rigel Robinson, a Berkeley city council member told reporters. Robinson is in favor of advancing the proposal.
The proposal itself wouldn’t change anything right away, according to AP. But if approved on Tuesday night, the proposal will call on the Berkeley city manager to convene a “community engagement process” to start the creation of the separate Berkeley transportation unit department to monitor traffic regulations and violations throughout the city.
While the Berkeley council will weigh in on the proposal, California police unions appear reticent to pursue the idea. AP writes that in a joint statement, the police unions for Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose said that some traffic violations, such as drunk driving and speeding, can escalate into violent encounters.
“We do not believe that the public wants lax enforcement of those incidents by non-sworn individuals. Traffic stops are some of the most dangerous actions police officers take. What happens when the felon with an illegal gun gets pulled over by the parking police?” the statement read. “Nothing good, we’re sure of that.”
Other advocates for the proposal think that it can change the interactions between police and all Americans.
Cheryl Phillips, the co-founder of the Stanford Open Policing Project, which monitors traffic stops nationwide, said that the idea is “hugely significant.”
“It has the potential to transform what is, I think, the most common interaction with police that people have,” she told the press.
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