we got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back
of the shooting deaths of Philando Castile Dante right
And most recently, Patrick Liotta at the hands of
police all started the same way and those deaths have
opened the door to a major police reform trend in so
parts of the country, philadelphia, Los Ange
Pittsburgh and several other cities are banning minor
traffic stops by police arguing they overwhelmin
impact. Black motorists aren't especially helpful in
stopping crime and can have fatal consequences. One of
the first cities to give this a try was Lansing
michigan. In july 2020 the Lansing P.D. Implemented ne
guidelines that band secondary violation, traffic st
That means things like broken windshield, cracked tail
light or tinted windows. But two years in no one really
knows if the policy changes working because the Lan
P.D. Isn't following it. The problem with the policy of
that Lansing has of not pulling people over unless it's
for a safety related reason is that it's just a policy
and the police can and apparently still do it.
Councilman brian T. Jackson, wh was born and raised in
Lansing worked on this initiative with the former
police chief and current mayor as a public defender. He
says he knows the community impact of these prete
stops the stops. Um they break down the relationshi
with the community and the police because if If a
certain portion of the community is stopped even if
they're not cited, that still leaves a bad taste in
people's mouth, according to the Lansing state journal.
Since 2020 local police have made more than 300 stops
for equipment violations. In about 1000 stops for
registration issues. Two catego of stops that were
supposed to end under the new policy, it's shortsight
and it's ill advised and it does not serve their
community members, robert Stevenson is the executive
director of the michigan Association of Chiefs of
Police and he says these supposedly minor stops ar
important. The federal government spent millions of
dollars to figure out. We need a third light in the
middle of a car. Why Because it avoids crashes and i
avoids injuries and it saves lives and you're much more
likely to be the victim of a traffic crash and injury.
Then you are the victim of a violent crime and such in
Lansing and across the country, Black motorists are
disproportionately pulled over and searched compared to
white driver. And according to the new york times
between 2016 and 2021 police have killed more than 400
motorists who were not wielding a gun or knife or under
pursuit for a violent crime. A rate of more than one
per week Mike Lynn, a civil rights activist in Lansin
says his close friend was killed by the Lansing Police
department when they were both teenagers. You know, at
the time it wasn't really Lansing Police departmen
focused. Uh, I really felt like it was like a reckoning
kind of, that police kill people while lin disputes the
circumstances of his death. Police say he was killed
after a foot chase and exchanging gunfire with off
The more of those interactions that happen, the m
people are gonna be killed. So we have to slow down
those interactions that aren't necessary. No stop stop.
300 Stevenson says it's not the officer's actions that
lead to these on duty, fatal shootings, they are kille
because the person had a headlight out there, killed
because they're bad people wher they ended up dead is
fighting with the police noncompliance and things
escalated from there. Lansing's new police chief says
he is reworking the policy to make it clearer, but
councilman Jackson is hoping for something more
concrete, a guarantee that, um, there won't, the police
officers won't seek charges stemming from a non safety
related stop, no matter where it is, there's going to
be critics and there's going to be proponents. I don't
know how well it's going to go other places. I'm hoping
that it goes well and Lansing and that we can be a
model. Now, chance, one of the things that community
members in Lansing alleged is that Lansing police
rather than not doing these minor traffic stops, Will
radio michigan state police or East Lansing police in
the area to carry out the traffic stop for them. So as
with any police reform policy buying from those rank
and file officers. It's just as important as the policy
itself. Chance Kamala Harris Thanks