LAPD chief greenlights new policy limiting minor traffic stops to 'eliminate bias'
Fox News
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore is green-lighting a new department policy aimed at limiting "pretextual" traffic stops, or traffic stops for minor violations.
"It is the Department's policy that pretextual stops shall not be conducted unless officers are acting upon articulable information in addition to the traffic violation, which may or may not amount to reasonable suspicion, regarding a serious crime (i.e. a crime with potential for great bodily injury or death)," the new policy states.
The effort comes in response to concerns from Los Angeles community members that pretextual stops for minor violations to investigate other crimes "are arbitrary, capricious and a reflection of an individual's implicit or explicit bias(es)," the letter states. The concerns stem from recent instances of routine traffic stops gone wrong — many of which are now recorded on police body cameras — in which officers use unnecessary force against individuals whom they sometimes wrongly suspect are armed and dangerous.
To "eliminate bias" within the LAPD and among its officers, the Department "seeks to hone the focus of its traffic enforcement and crime prevention strategies … while also strengthening trust and improving community relations," the letter states, adding that "less attention" should be given to "vehicle equipment violations," such as a missing license plate.
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