The U.S. has persistently relied on armed law enforcement to enforce traffic laws. However, existing evidence does not support the notion that police traffic enforcement improves public safety. In fact, police traffic enforcement has serious adverse consequences for community health and well-being, and with disproportionate impacts on Black communities. Last year, the Thurgood Marshall Institute published a research brief, Safe Roads for All, which found that police traffic enforcement is not associated with safer roads. This episode of Justice Above All builds upon what is discussed in that brief and presents a community-centered public health approach to traffic safety. Our guests come from the transit safety and police reform worlds. Together, they agree that we can reimagine traffic safety in a way that prioritizes transit safety and eliminates our heavy reliance on policing.
Senior Researcher and Statistician, Thurgood Marshall Institute
Justice in Public Safety Project Legal Fellow, Legal Defense Fund
Policy Organizer, Decarcerate Memphis
Program Manager, Vision Zero Network
“Driving while Black” refers to the racial profiling of Black motorists. The phrase was popularized in the 1990s when police officers in the U.S. were found to intentionally target people of color in alleged efforts to stop drug trafficking.
Pretextual traffic stops are when an officer pulls over a driver for a minor traffic violation (e.g., having tinted windows or hanging an air freshener from the rearview mirror) as a “pretext” to investigate another potential crime. Police have wide discretion in determining whether and when to escalate any minor traffic violation into a stop, and this discretion increases the risk of racial bias in pretextual traffic stops. Data from the Fines and Fees Justice Center showed that police were three times more likely to search white drivers during non-safety stops than safety stops but seven times more likely to search Black and Latino drivers during non-safety stops than safety stops. However, the contraband discovery rates were similar for safety and non-safety stops (19.5% vs. 21.3%). The phrase “driving while Black” continued to grow after Whren v. United States (1996). The case held that pretextual stops do not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, as long as the police officer has reasonable suspicion that a traffic law has been violated.
Traffic stops are the most common type of police interaction. Police make about 20,000,000 traffic stops a year or about 50,000 stops per day.
Since 2017, more than 800 people have been killed by police during traffic stops, and more than one in four of those killed in those stops were Black drivers, though Black people make up only fourteen percent of the U.S. population. Recent deaths where people were driving while Black include Philando Castile, Daunte Wright, DeCynthia Clements, Patrick Lyoya, Tyre Nichols, and many others.
Studies of traffic stop data across the country consistently show that police officers stop Black drivers at higher rates than white drivers, both in big cities and in small towns. In the most recent large-scale study of this issue, Stanford University researchers analyzed nearly 100 million traffic stops across more than fifty state and city police departments from 2011 to 2018. They found that Black drivers were stopped at a forty-three percent higher rate than white drivers.
To isolate for the potential effect of racial bias in police traffic enforcement, researchers employ multiple strategies to try to control for differences in driving behaviors. One strategy is the “veil-of-darkness” test which was introduced by Jeffrey Grogger and Greg Ridgeway. The test posits that because police are less likely to be able to discern a driver’s race after dark compared to in daylight hours, if disparities are worse during daylight hours, that provides evidence of racial discrimination. In the Stanford University study of nearly 100 million traffic stops, the researchers applied the “veil-of-darkness” test and found that Black drivers were a smaller portion of the drivers who were stopped after dark compared to during daylight, which suggested discrimination against Black drivers.
Each year, approximately 2.5 million to 3 million people are injured from traffic crashes. In 2023, nearly 41,000 people in the U.S. died from traffic crashes. Traffic crashes are one of the leading causes of death of Americans younger than fifty-five years old.
Due to historic and ongoing inequity in road safety infrastructure and funding, Black communities are disproportionately impacted by unsafe roads. According to a study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Black people face higher rates of traffic fatalities per mile traveled than white people, and that can be attributed to structural racism and systemic divestment in road safety infrastructure (e.g., wide and well-maintained sidewalks and bike lanes) in majority-Black neighborhoods. In the study, the researchers found that compared to white people, the fatality rate per mile traveled for Black people was 4.5 times higher while cycling, 2.2 times higher while walking, and 1.8 times higher while occupying a vehicle.
Existing research suggests that police traffic stops are not effective in improving traffic safety through the reduction of crashes, which is ostensibly the primary goal of police traffic enforcement. A 2021 study of data regarding traffic stops and deaths due to motor vehicle crashes in thirty-three states from 2004 to 2016 found no association between the rate of police stops and the rate of deaths due to motor vehicle crashes. This suggests that increased police enforcement of traffic laws does not reduce traffic fatalities.
Police traffic enforcement has harmful consequences including trauma and violence during police encounters as well as wealth extraction from communities. Being issued a traffic ticket can lead to unjustified consequences such as debt, a suspended driver’s license, or even incarceration if someone is unable to pay bail. Police disproportionately target Black drivers with traffic stops, so Black communities are disproportionately burdened with court fines and fees.
In April 2023, the Memphis City Council unanimously passed the “Achieving Driving Equality” ordinance. The ordinance aimed to prevent racial disparities in traffic stops while still protecting public safety and did so by ushering forth a number of police reforms in regard to traffic safety. The ordinance is also known as the Tyre Nichols Driving Equality Act.
In 2020, the Berkeley City Council approved a proposal to create the first civilian traffic agency in the U.S. However, the proposal has been blocked or “preempted” by a California state law that only authorizes law enforcement agencies to conduct traffic stops. In 2023, the California Senate introduced Senate Bill 50 which would prohibit police officers from making traffic stops for low-level infractions and would authorize non-police government employees to enforce non-moving and equipment violation. To date, the City Council’s proposal and the Senate Bill have not successfully moved forward.
ABA Civil Rights and Social Justice Chair Chat Series
LDF Justice in Public Safety Project
