A bill making its way through the New York state legislature would prohibit police from conducting traffic stops for minor violations in an effort to limit unnecessary stops and further “racial equity and public safety.”
The proposal would bar officers from pulling people over or searching them for various traffic violations, including having a taillight out, expired vehicle registration tags, too much window tint or if the smell of marijuana is detected.
In certain cases, evidence collected in violation of the bill may be excluded in court.
The measure aims to limit “the frequency of traffic stops for minor violations in furtherance of racial equity and public safety,” according to the bill, as racial minorities in the state make up the majority of arrests and traffic stops.
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In Nassau County alone, black and Latino residents account for 61% of arrests, 50% of traffic stops, 60% of field interviews and 69% of pat-downs, despite making up under 30% of the county’s population combined, police data shows.
White drivers are issued an average of 1.3 tickets per stop compared to two tickets for black drivers and 2.1 for Latino drivers, the data shows.
A lawsuit against Nassau argues that police in the county have acted with racial bias when conducting traffic stops.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told reporters on Friday it is “ridiculous” to argue that there is racial bias in policing during traffic stops, saying that officers are usually unaware of the driver’s race before making a stop.
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“It’s just a bizarre argument, it’s pro-criminal,” Blakeman said, according to the New York Post. “It doesn’t matter what race you are. If you’re breaking the law, then you’re breaking the law.”
Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said minor infractions such as broken lights or expired registrations typically lead to warnings but that restricting the ability to enforce the law makes the roads less safe.
“They say the roads are so bad in Nassau County. Well, you would just be taking another tool away from us that’s going to get these bad drivers off the road,” he told reporters. “Stop taking the handcuffs off of the criminals and putting them onto our men and women in law enforcement.”
The county’s district attorney, Anne Donnelly, said the proposal “is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in my 36 years in law enforcement.”
Donnelly also said she believes the bill would disproportionately impact Nassau because of the region’s high number of drivers and car accidents, as she claims it would allow people to essentially get away with breaking the law, according to the NYP.
She referenced a traffic stop that resulted in the 1993 capture of serial killer Joel Rifkin, who murdered at least 17 people in the area before he was stopped over the missing license plate on the rear of his pick-up truck that had a body in its trunk, the outlet reported.
“When an officer walks up to a driver and asks them for their license and registration — they never know what is going to happen next,” Donnelly said. “It’s important to be able to make these legitimate stops. There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop.”
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