The Philadelphia Police Department will soon become the most prominent city to ban minor traffic stops by law enforcement. According to officials, the “Driving Equality Bill” is designed to ease tension between police and community members by removing the potential of dangerous interactions through minor traffic stops.
With most “reform” ideas, this sounds like a good idea but it ignores several important aspects of law enforcement and in the end, the community will suffer.
First, the idea to limit minor traffic stops and all of a sudden police use of force against minorities will be reduced is about as stupid as it comes.
Officials used the death of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, as one reason to move forward with the idea but Wright was not killed because he was stopped for an expired tag. Wright had felony warrants and fought with the police after being pulled over. While tragic, does anyone actually believe that driving around without a registration is why he died?
He died because he fought cops and tragically was shot rather than being tased.
The legislation was driven in part by an examination of 309,000 traffic stops over the course of a year. The data showed that 72% of the stops involved Black drivers while they make up just half in the city.
Once again, this is patently stupid.
First, how many of those stops were “minor” stops and would be affected by this new law?
We have an answer and it’s close to zero. First, because cops in Philadelphia are tired of being accused of racist and they stopped enforcing traffic months ago.
Second, because the politicians didn’t share that specific data, which tells you it would have gotten in the way of another silly reform mandate.
So why would politicians pass a law that limits the ability of the Philadelphia Police Department to do their job?
Just like the failed social experiments before, it is to increase violence in the city.
Law enforcement has limited options when it comes to combatting violence but one that has worked historically is to patrol high crime neighborhoods, areas where violence is occurring. Seldom do those patrols stop violence but the vehicle stops that occur during patrols have done an amazing job of preventing violence from occurring. From taking guns off the streets to locating wanted fugitives, the activity is proactive in nature and when someone is in jail, they tend to have a difficult time murdering someone. Does anyone wonder why violent crime plummets every time our jails are full?
You can call that racist if you want but when less people are murdered, we call that a good thing.
If you still don’t believe that traffic stops and patrols limit violence, take a look at every city that has limited patrol, specialty units or traffic stops and you will see the surge in violence….Every single one!
While the Philadelphia politicians are worried about “equity” in traffic stops, they don’t seem to be concerned about the equity in murder. With 451 murders so far in 2021, they are on pace to break their record set last year.
Oddly, the politicians or the police department don’t seem to care about tracking the race of those victims and suspects…just those stopped for minor traffic violations.
In 2020, 85% of the suspects in murder were black and the majority of all murder victims were black.
Then again, no one cares because 72% of the traffic stops were black.
To prove all of this is true, we will do what no politician that passes ridiculous reforms will ever do.
We will look at the metrics in a year and we guarantee you that there will still be plenty of complaints about “equity” and the murder rate will be at another record.
