When it comes to criminals and law enforcement, it’s good common sense to curtail activities of the police rather than those of the criminal when there appears to be any form of conflict.
So sayeth Christopher L. Kutz, C.William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley.
A Los Angeles Times Op-Ed piece on August 13th by Mr Kutz indicates:
For a safer America, curtail traffic stops
by Christopher Kutz
In one video after another this year, we’ve seen police stops of African American drivers go violently, terribly wrong. Think of Walter Scott, killed by a police officer in North Charleston, S.C., after a traffic stop for a broken tail light. Or Sandra Bland, pulled over for failure to signal a lane change, and after a confrontation with a Texas state trooper, hauled off to jail, where she died. Or Samuel Dubose, fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer after being pulled over for a missing license tag.
They should never have been stopped by police at all. Nor should the vast majority of Americans pulled over in our national ritual of the traffic stop.
Right now I can the enamel flecking off the teeth of America’s motor and traffic officers nationally.
But minor traffic violations, by definition, pose no significant immediate threat and represent only a marginal increase in risk to road safety. On the other hand, every stop brings a substantial danger to the law enforcement officer: Car and motorcycle accidents and being struck by vehicles are a leading cause of death in the line of duty. Stops also produce a significant risk of escalation and confrontation, with tragic outcomes.
Stay with me. And please read the entire editorial for the full context. Mr Kutz is moving towards a point here. Let’s continue.
We do not need to accept the traffic stop as the price of public safety. I have driven many miles in other countries, and I have never seen a traffic stop of the sort that I witness nearly daily in California. While precise data are difficult to secure, Americans experience police traffic stops at a rate of about 9,900 per 100,000 citizens, according to a Justice Department survey. By contrast, government reports in England and Wales show traffic stops occur at a rate of only about 2,200 per 100,000; and in France, 2,760 per 100,000. My calculations for Spain, based on its raw number of citations, is about 3,000 per 100,000.
One reason for this divergence is that these countries, like many others, enforce their speeding laws primarily through radar systems that automatically generate tickets. Red-light cameras also account for a significant proportion of fines. The benefit of camera systems is not only that they permit more extensive enforcement of laws against genuinely dangerous driving behavior, but they do so without racial bias. No camera has ever Tased or shot an unarmed driver.
Those pesky humans, let’s just remove them from the equation. Further, since we’re eliminating the traffic stop, we’d best eliminate the police pursuit altogether. In order to enable that aspect, we could logically save more governmental money by doing what European forces do, and that’s to downsize police vehicles. Ford Explorers, the Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Impala, all with 300+ hp, could be replaced by the Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Spark or Sonic. Fleets could also include the Toyota Prius or Nissan Leaf.
Mr Kutz argues that we are “out of step” with other nations and, because of this, we need to revamp our foundational policing models. Let us not forget that our US Constitution and Bill of Rights are likewise out of step with other nations.
Now the real but unspoken goal of Mr Kutz: the gradual elimination of a serious portion of the number of law enforcement officers across the nation, to be replaced by technology — a semi RoboCop scenario mixed with Chappie and OCP (or perhaps ideally not replaced at all). But if the “educational elite” think they’ve seen pushback, just wait until each corner features a camera and tangent aspects of roadway are festooned with radar cams for speed.
There’s a saying: “those who make enemies of the police had better make friends with the criminals.”
I think perhaps I may have retired at just the proper time.
BZ
