Policy Platform

Our coalition believes that

1. There are too many unnecessary traffic stops and searches.

2. These stops cause psychological, financial, physical, and other harms that disproportionately impact Black people and other people of color.

3. Traffic stops for the below list of offenses do not advance road safety.

4. Jurisdictions should use comprehensive data about traffic stops to understand who is stopped, why they are stopped, and the outcome of those stops.

  • a) Making the offense a secondary, rather than primary, violation, so that it cannot be the sole reason for a stop

    b) Issuing an equipment repair voucher instead of a ticket

    c) Issuing a notice by mail, without a traffic stop

    d) Repealing or modifying the offense

    e) Banning consent searches without independent reasonable suspicion to disincentivize stops of the offense

    Each of these approaches should be carefully considered when implemented to avoid replicating inequities and harms caused by traditional forms of traffic enforcement (as has been documented in the use of surveillance technologies)

Offenses to limit

The following list is not exhaustive. It is a starting point for considering which traffic violations, commonly enforced by police, are not related to road safety.

Registration and Inspection

  • Expired registration tags

  • Expired inspection/emissions certificate

  • Failure to affix certificate (inspection, licensure, registration, insurance) properly as long as it is visible

License Plates

  • Failure to illuminate or obstruction of a license plate, as long as numbers/letters are legible 

  • Failure to display two license plates

Lighting

  • Single brake, head, or tail light out 

  • Turn lights out

Windshield, mirrors, and windows

  • Obstructed or defective rear view mirror, unless one or both of the sideview mirrors are missing or damaged as well

  • Defective windshield wipers

  • Obstruction or crack of windshield, rear window, or side windows, unless the driver’s view is so obstructed as to create a condition that substantially increases the likelihood of injury or death

  • Excessive or noncompliant window tint/glaze 

Other

  • Loud exhaust/ no/defective muffler

  • Excessive noise

  • Defective horn

  • Missing or loosely secured front or rear bumper

Resources to Learn More