Philadelphia Becomes First City to End ‘Minor’ Traffic Stops in Effort to Cut Down on Police Interactions

Ryan Johnson via Wikipedia Commons

Philadelphia, PA will become the first major city to put an end to “minor” traffic stops. The Philadelphia city council has proposed two separate bills that Mayor Jim Kenney is expected to sign this week which are designed to cut down on interactions with police officers.

The Hill reports:

Two bills, the Driving Equality Act, which separates traffic violations into “primary” and “secondary” violations, and another that requires the police department to report and publish information collected during vehicle stops to a public database that’s updated at least monthly, were passed by the City Council earlier this month. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney plans to sign them into law as soon as this week.

Once signed, the city’s police department will have 120 days to train and educate officers before the law goes into effect.

Under the Driving Equality Act, police are permitted to make traffic stops for “primary” violations that compromise public safety, but stops will no longer be used for “secondary” violations, like a damaged bumper or expired registration tags.

“#DrivingEquality reinforces that public safety can be achieved with other methods than traffic stops,” Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the bill’s author, wrote Sunday on Twitter. “Traffic stops are traumatic for drivers and scary for police officers. Limiting them makes everyone safer and communities stronger.”

Other cities across the country have also considered legislation to cut down on traffic stops however critics believe the laws could lead to issues with state funding and they could violate state laws.



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