The Banning of Minor Vehicular Stops

Many states and cities in the US, including Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, and Seattle, are reimagining better ways of enforcing traffic regulations in such settings. For a long time, it has been debated whether increased policing is the appropriate solution to societal wrongdoings. This matter is particularly problematic in societies that face diversity challenges—the United States is a perfect example. For instance, some US cities and states have noted that traffic stops are sometimes used as ‘fishing expeditions’ to disproportionately target people of color. I believe the US government needs to change methods of promoting traffic safety to prevent routine humiliation and needless deaths of many Black and Hispanic drivers at the hands of police. Banning traffic stops across states and cities in the United States will bring positive changes to the justice system and the affected communities.

Traffic stops result in more harm than good, especially since police in states like North Carolina, Washington & California seem to target drivers from minority communities. According to Horn (2020), Black drivers were 63 percent more likely to be pulled over in North Carolina than their white counterparts. Although contraband was more likely to be found in white drivers, Black drivers were 115 percent more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than whites . The highly racialized nature of traffic stops and searchers erodes community trust in the police, even though most of these interactions lead to an arrest. Research indicates that nearly half of Black Americans have very little confidence that police comply with professional, statutory, and constitutional norms (Horowitz, 2007). As a result, this lack of trust and confidence implies that the police do not control crime effectively. 

At the same time, traffic often stops exact a psychological toll, particularly for Black and Latin Americans who continuously experience collective trauma from police violence. Various studies have documented a correlation between police traffic stops and mental health across various groups . Jackson et al. (2019) mentioned that emotionally-charged and stressful interactions with police officers lead to feelings of trauma and stigma. According to Del Toro et al. (2019), police stops may unintentionally influence youths to continuously engage in criminal behavior due to an increased rate of contact with law enforcement. Since traffic stops are often characterized by aggressiveness from the police, they affect the mental health and general well-being of young people. 

In addition, proactive policing techniques like traffic stops reduce the public’s willingness to cooperate during criminal investigations. When there are significant opinion differences concerning the public’s role in crime prevention, achieving effective public participation in crime control programs would take much work. The opinion differences often occur when police disproportionately implement traffic stops, making some members of the public appear to be naturally criminals. According to Schwartz & Brownstein (2015), some people may sometimes deviate from desirable social values. Using illustrations from the left realist theory, the researchers mentioned that policing decisions are often designed to justify massive repressive actions targeting members of specific working classes and racial or ethnic groups. 

According to proponents of traffic stops, such policies help reduce crime and accidents while minimizing the impact of crashes. However, evidence suggests that the rate of traffic accidents is not associated with state patrol traffic stops . In most US cities, police have an essentially unmonitored ability to initiate traffic stops due to laws prohibiting innocuous activities, like having objects hanging from a rearview mirror. Police initially used marijuana as a reason to initiate traffic stops—it was believed that the legalization of the drug would reduce racial disparities in traffic stops. Although the searches for Black, Latino, and White drivers all decreased when marijuana was removed as a reason for vehicular inspections, the racial disparities in traffic stops have persisted. 

To conclude, the harms of traffic stops far outweigh any potential public safety benefits regardless of intentions, as illustrated by the deeply entrenched racial disparities in traffic enforcement and the continued killing of Black drivers. This essay has shown that traffic stops do not result in increased perceptions of safety among community members or trust in law enforcement agencies. Although traffic stops prevent misbehaviors like over-speeding, thereby contributing to decreased accidents and fatalities, this factor does not justify using such policies if they lead to life-threatening interactions. Also, it has been evident that emotionally-charged and stressful interactions affect the mental health of individuals experiencing such traumatic encounters. Lastly, traffic stops reduce public participation in crime prevention programs since the racial implementation of regulations creates a divide between various groups. Banning traffic stops across US cities and states is necessary to influence positive changes in the nation’s justice system and to promote the welfare of affected communities.