Activists push to end LAPD's practice of 'pretextual' traffic stops
They say the stops encourage racial profiling and disproportionately affect poor communities.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council is considering a wide-ranging motion addressing so-called "pretextual'' traffic stops by police.
Some activists are urging councilmembers to end the practice, which they say encourages racial profiling and disproportionately affects poor communities. During these stops, officers pull over drivers for minor infractions, like a broken taillight, to justify a search.
"It has been four years since this motion was introduced. It's been a lot of work to keep pushing it forward ... to work with them, and so we've done all the work on the outside to answer all the questions, do the research," said Leslie Johnson with Community Coalition.
The PUSH LA coalition held a press conference Wednesday ahead of the motion hearing that would request the Los Angeles Police Department's Office of the Inspector General to provide an evaluation of the 2022 pretextual stop policy, including all available data on all traffic stops conducted since the 2022 policy change.
The report also asks for all oversight protocols law enforcement officers are required to follow at all stages before, during, or after a traffic stop and a list of all traffic safety reasons why law enforcement would currently pull someone over.
Community groups who gathered Wednesday hope this will end those stops.
"All these kinds of things are just ugliness that we don't need, and our people don't need to live with any longer," said Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who represents the city's 8th District.
LAPD Interim Chief Dominic Choi said the traffic stops are a good tool to help solve violent crime in the community - if conducted properly and constitutionally.
"If officers are going out there and stopping anything that moves in a vehicle for no front plate, those type of things, sure, sometimes those can lead to great arrests, but I also it causes damage and jeopardizes our public trust when we're doing it for a non-strategic or non-focused reason," he said.
City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.
