Traffic Stops: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

The Prevalence and Peril of Traffic Stops

• Traffic stops are the most common law enforcement interaction in America, with police pulling over more than 50,000 drivers daily, totaling over 20 million motorists annually. These stops occur for various reasons, including speeding, broken tail lights, and even for having derogatory stickers on vehicles. (11s)
• Since 2017, police have killed at least 813 people during traffic stops, with Black individuals disproportionately affected, comprising 29% of those killed despite being only about 14% of the population. High-profile cases include the killings of Philando Castile, Daunte Wright, and Tyre Nichols. (1m23s)
• For Black people, driving often involves a constant fear of being stopped by police, which can lead to harassment or violence. This fear is not just due to individual "bad apple" officers but is seen as a systemic issue resulting from deliberate decisions in law enforcement practices. (1m52s)

The Systemic Nature of Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

• While police do conduct traffic stops for legitimate road safety reasons, such as dangerous speeding or drunk driving, there is a need to address the power given to police during these stops and how it is sometimes abused. The discussion includes exploring simple ways to change the current system. (3m9s)
• Pretextual stops allow police to use minor traffic violations as a reason to detain and investigate individuals for further evidence of crimes, with the Supreme Court giving police wide discretion in handling traffic stops (5m7s).
• The courts have ruled that requiring a warrant for searching cars is impractical due to the mobility of vehicles, resulting in police having more leeway to search cars than houses (4m58s).
• In 1996, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Ren versus the US that pretextual stops are constitutional as long as police have evidence of a traffic violation, regardless of the actual motivations of the individual officers involved (5m12s).
• This means that police can use a simple stop to start a criminal investigation, and many stops now amount to "shaking people down" to see what crimes fall out (5m32s).
• A popular manual for training police in traffic investigations states that criminal patrol is a "numbers game" and requires a lot of contacts to find the relatively few felony offenders (5m41s).
• Experts say that finding the initial reason to pull someone over is easy, with many laws on the books allowing police to find a reason to stop someone, such as loose bumpers or non-functional brake lights (6m17s).
• The list of traffic violations is extensive, with Massachusetts having a 25-page list, Florida having a 32-page list, and New York City having a 135-page list, making it impossible for drivers to be familiar with every single rule (6m32s).
• Some laws around the country are truly absurd, such as laws prohibiting drivers from hanging objects from their rearview mirrors, including air fresheners and rosary beads (6m54s).
• Pretextual stops have been used to justify pulling over individuals for minor infractions, such as having an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, which was the case for Dante Wright (7m0s).
• Some police officers insist that pretextual stops are essential to fighting crime, citing examples of minor traffic violations leading to big arrests, but others argue that it is petty to pull someone over for such minor infractions (7m16s).

Legal Basis and Implications of Pretextual Stops

• Pretextual stops allow police to use minor traffic violations as a reason to detain and investigate individuals for further evidence of crimes, with the Supreme Court giving police wide discretion in handling traffic stops (5m7s).
• The courts have ruled that requiring a warrant for searching cars is impractical due to the mobility of vehicles, resulting in police having more leeway to search cars than houses (4m58s).
• In 1996, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Ren versus the US that pretextual stops are constitutional as long as police have evidence of a traffic violation, regardless of the actual motivations of the individual officers involved (5m12s).
• This means that police can use a simple stop to start a criminal investigation, and many stops now amount to "shaking people down" to see what crimes fall out (5m32s).

The "Numbers Game" of Criminal Patrol

• A popular manual for training police in traffic investigations states that criminal patrol is a "numbers game" and requires a lot of contacts to find the relatively few felony offenders (5m41s).
• Experts say that finding the initial reason to pull someone over is easy, with many laws on the books allowing police to find a reason to stop someone, such as loose bumpers or non-functional brake lights (6m17s).
• The list of traffic violations is extensive, with Massachusetts having a 25-page list, Florida having a 32-page list, and New York City having a 135-page list, making it impossible for drivers to be familiar with every single rule (6m32s).
• Some laws around the country are truly absurd, such as laws prohibiting drivers from hanging objects from their rearview mirrors, including air fresheners and rosary beads (6m54s).

The Absurdity of Some Traffic Laws

• Pretextual stops have been used to justify pulling over individuals for minor infractions, such as having an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, which was the case for Dante Wright (7m0s).
• Some police officers insist that pretextual stops are essential to fighting crime, citing examples of minor traffic violations leading to big arrests, but others argue that it is petty to pull someone over for such minor infractions (7m16s).

The Justification and Criticism of Pretextual Stops

• Pretextual stops, a crime-fighting tool, have been used to justify the arrest of individuals like Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, who was caught for driving without a license plate, but research has shown that such stops do little to make communities safer (7m44s).
• A Philadelphia study found that out of 300,000 stops, only 67% recovered any contraband, and just 17% recovered any weapons, indicating that pretextual stops are a waste of time (8m21s).

The Financial Incentives Behind Traffic Stops

• In some smaller municipalities, police are not just looking for crimes, but also for revenue, as they ramp up ticketing during budgetary shortfalls, leading to an increase in traffic stops (8m51s).
• In 17 states, minor traffic violations are arrestable offenses that come with a criminal record, and people can still end up in jail for failure to pay fines, even in states where that is not the case (9m22s).
• Traffic fines can quickly spiral into a dire situation, as one woman from St. Louis explained, having been stopped over 20 times and accumulating multiple warrants due to her inability to pay (9m43s).

The Disproportionate Impact on Communities of Color

• The cost of these stops is borne overwhelmingly by communities of color, particularly black drivers, who are pulled over at more than twice the rate of white drivers for non-traffic safety violations (10m59s).
• Many police departments fail to track the racial makeup of who they stop and search, or gather the data but fail to connect the dots as to what it means, as seen in the case of a police official in New Jersey (11m18s).
• In Bloomfield, motor vehicle stop data shows 1,814 stops so far in the year, with 576 Hispanic, 573 white, and 574 African-American stops, which seems even across the board, but considering the population is 60% white and 20% black, the numbers raise questions about racial profiling (11m31s).
• The explanation for the numbers is that police officers are deployed in certain areas, but this explanation does not account for the disproportionate number of stops of African-American drivers (12m8s).
• Racial profiling in traffic stops is not new and has its roots in the Jim Crow era South, with police being trained to look for certain traits that are associated with specific racial groups (12m34s).

The Difficulty of Proving Racial Bias in Traffic Stops

• A Supreme Court case raised the bar to prove racial bias, requiring intent to be established, which is difficult to prove as police officers rarely explicitly admit to racial profiling (12m59s).
• A federal judge rejected claims of racial intent after an officer justified pulling over a black driver by saying "one can never tell with you people" (13m16s).
• Philando Castile was pulled over 46 times in and around St. Paul, Minnesota, accumulating over $5,000 in fines, with his mother attributing the stops to racial profiling (13m30s).
• Castile's mother believes her son was stopped so many times because he was black, and it was not due to his driving skills or any other reason (14m10s).

Case Studies of Racial Profiling in Traffic Stops

• The concept of "pretext stops" is mentioned, where drivers are stopped for minor infractions, but the real reason is often racial profiling (14m28s).
• The stakes are high in these situations, and police officers sometimes remind drivers of this, as seen in an interaction between a Florida officer and a driver who was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt (15m2s).
• During a traffic stop, an officer's language suggested a passive inevitability of violence, implying that shootings are not choices made by officers. (15m50s)
• Police training often instills fear in officers during traffic stops, with trainers claiming these stops are among the most dangerous interactions for officers. (16m0s)
• A training conference in New Jersey focused on traffic investigations and featured a speaker who expressed a love for violence and fighting, which was concerning. (16m13s)
• The conference was organized by Street Cop Training, a company that trains thousands of officers annually across the United States. (17m11s)
• Attendees of the conference received a "reasonable suspicion factors checklist," which included questionable indicators of criminal behavior, such as passengers texting or drivers looking at or away from police cars. (17m39s)
• The tactics taught at the conference were criticized by New Jersey's Office of the State Controller as being unjustifiably harassing and unconstitutional. (18m26s)
• Studies indicate that the perceived dangers of traffic stops for officers are exaggerated, with the risk of an officer being killed during a stop estimated to be between 1 in 3.6 million and 1 in 6 million. (18m48s)
• A police reform advocate stated that the risk of police encounters is statistically negligible but existentially amplified, and it's notable that during certain encounters, cops seem to have less of a hair trigger (18m55s).
• A County judge was pulled over by a cop and exited the car with full energy, but after the cop found out he was a judge, the interaction ended with the cop saying "have a good day, judge" (19m26s).
• For black drivers, even when traffic stops don't result in a shooting, arrest, or fine, there can still be real harm from dehumanizing interactions (20m17s).
• Ton Lee, a teenager, was pulled over in 2018 for supposedly making a wide turn, subjected to questioning, handcuffed, and frisked, while police searched his vehicle (20m30s).
• Lee called out the cop for blaming him for the stop and explained that he had done nothing wrong, having graduated with a scholarship and never been in trouble (20m55s).
• The cop who pulled Lee over testified that he believed Lee was armed because of his nervousness, but a judge later sided with Lee, stating that nervousness alone is not a sufficient basis for reasonable suspicion (21m47s).
• The cop also tried to justify his actions by mentioning a small souvenir Louisville Slugger bat in the car, but the bat weighed only 6 oz and was not a viable weapon (22m10s).
• Another cop arrived, and Lee's mother asked why her son was being treated that way, and the cop explained that they were part of a serious crime unit (22m29s).

Traffic Stops as a Pretext for Other Actions

• Traffic stops are a significant part of police work, often used as a pretext for other actions. This practice is highlighted as problematic, as it can lead to unnecessary and potentially harmful interactions. (22m39s)
• A police officer admitted to stopping numerous people, indicating that the issue is systemic rather than isolated. This suggests that the system is functioning as designed, rather than being a result of individual misconduct. (23m54s)

Systemic Issues and Calls for Reform

• There is a call to stop pretextual stops, particularly those not related to safety, such as cracked windshields or expired registrations. This approach has been advocated by activists and implemented in some areas. (24m11s)
• In Ann Arbor, Michigan, a law was passed to reduce pretextual stops, focusing police efforts on more serious violations like speeding and reckless driving. This change aims to improve policing by prioritizing safety-related offenses. (24m24s)
• Philadelphia became the first major city to ban police from stopping drivers for certain low-level traffic violations. This resulted in a significant reduction in stops for these violations, particularly benefiting Black drivers. (25m22s)
• There is a recommendation to decriminalize minor traffic offenses and avoid incarcerating individuals for unpaid fines and fees. (25m41s)
• Experts suggest that states should require police to maintain and publish data on all traffic stops, including the race of those stopped, to identify and address any emerging patterns of discrimination. (25m50s)
• It is surprising that traffic stops are not being reduced, despite posing a safety concern for police officers, and doing fewer of them should be a straightforward decision (26m6s).
• Reducing the number of traffic stops could also lead to a decrease in the number of police officers needed, which would be a welcome outcome (26m34s).
• The goal is to stop the abusive practices associated with traffic stops, which is an obvious necessity that even a child can understand (26m55s).
• The hope is that in the near future, the fear of traffic stops will become a distant memory (27m8s).