Citation

Hall J. Manhattan Inst. Iss. Brief 2021; (September).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Manhattan Institute)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

In the race to reform policing, a few advocates and politicians have recommended that New York City police be removed from traffic enforcement. State Attorney General Letitia James, for example, concluded that the NYPD should cease conducting noncriminal traffic enforcement in her review of the department's handling of the George Floyd protests. Brad Lander, a member of the city council and erstwhile safe-streets advocate, proposed "removing NYPD officers from routine traffic stops" for infractions such as speeding. He suggested that they "only enforce driving behavior that visibly and immediately endangers public safety (e.g., drag-racing, visibly erratic, aggressive, intoxicated, or road-rage driving)." Others have recommended assigning the traffic-enforcement function to a new, unarmed enforcement agency,3 or have suggested increasing the use of automated enforcement tools like speed cameras to replace police.

These ideas are ill-considered and dangerous. Police traffic enforcement saves lives, reduces street disorder, and plays an important role in criminal investigations. The events of 2020, which disrupted the NYPD's traffic enforcement, laid these facts bare...

...The NYPD has effectively connected its traffic enforcement to crime suppression while pursuing its broader public safety goals. Experience during the pandemic has revealed that removing police from traffic enforcement leads to more dangerous streets, more disorder, and more crime. Policing reforms need to be approached thoughtfully and carefully, always keeping public safety and neighborhood concerns in mind. Unfortunately, some reform proposals fail to do so; they ignore community demands and disregard officer safety. Public safety policy decisions and legislation must be informed by data and made with eyes wide open to their consequences. Otherwise, we will be left with bad policy that further endangers New Yorkers and their trust in public institutions.

Available:
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/hall-police-enforce-traffic-laws.pdf