REVEREND RICKY BURGESS, the Pittsburgh Councilman who introduced the legislation.
Councilman Burgess, others say police traffic stops disproportionately target African Americans
Just in time for the new year, Pittsburgh City Council voted nearly unanimously in favor of doing away with minor traffic stops by the city’s police officers.
The vote on Tuesday, Dec. 28, was 8-1—all but Councilman Anthony Coghill voting in favor of the legislation.
Pittsburgh Police officers on patrol can no longer pull people over for violations such as a taillight or headlight that’s not working, an expired registration sticker that’s fewer than two months expired, or a license plate not properly mounted. It’s unclear if there are other minor traffic offenses for which officers can no longer pull drivers over.
It was longtime Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess who initially introduced the legislation, pointing to chilling data showing just how disproportionate the numbers are when it comes to Blacks being pulled over by police in Pittsburgh. In 2020, there were 4,650 Black motorists pulled over, 137 more than White motorists (4,513). Reverend Burgess said the numbers were staggering, considering Pittsburgh has a Black population that’s three times less than its White population.
“African Americans are three times more likely to be stopped by police than other brothers and sisters, and that creates a chilling effect in the African American community,” Rev. Burgess said to KDKA-TV in a November interview.
In early November, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed the “Driving Equity Act,” making Philadelphia the first large city to ban low-level traffic stops. The ban goes into effect in January 2022.
Pittsburgh’s low-level traffic stops ban goes into effect in April 2022, giving officers time to transition into fully implementing the ban. It also gives members of the public time to discuss with City Council any concerns about the bill, and it allows for incoming mayor Ed Gainey and his administration a chance to place their input.
In Philadelphia, the Driving Equity Act will allow for officers to place tickets on a vehicle’s windshield or mailed to the home address on file. It’s unclear if Pittsburgh’s legislation will allow for city officers to do the same.
In an October blog post on the Vera Institute of Justice website, authors Akhi Johnson and Erica Bryant applauded this new movement by local agencies to eliminate traffic stops for low-level offenses.
“When police stop people for things like broken taillights or dark window tinting, it creates unnecessary opportunities for deadly encounters. The list of people killed after police detained them for trivial reasons is far too long—and continues to grow,” the authors wrote.
That list includes high-profile incidents involving people like Sandra Bland, the Black woman in Texas who was originally pulled over for failing to put on her turn signal. And Philando Castile, the Black man in Minnesota who was the passenger in a car pulled over for a non-functioning brake light. And Daunte Wright, another Black man in Minnesota pulled over for having an expired registration sticker.
All three of those African Americans are no longer living. Without police pulling them over for those secondary violations, they likely would be alive today.
Pittsburgh has become the latest city to try to lessen encounters between police and the public—with the “public” oftentimes being African Americans who are unfairly targeted.
“Non-public safety stops create unnecessary points of contact with a criminal legal system that causes far too much unnecessary trauma and harm, particularly for Black people,” Johnson and Bryant wrote for the Vera Institute of Justice. “These stops allow bias, are dangerous, and don’t make us safer. Eliminating them across the country is a major step toward building a criminal legal system that delivers justice for all.”
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