The Urgent Need to Remove Police from Traffic Enforcement
All of us at Transportation Alternatives were angered and heartbroken by the police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. This state-sanctioned violence began with a traffic stop — showing, once again, how transportation, racism, and policing intersect.
We’ve been reflecting on our responsibility in this work, and the ongoing work to end police violence in our communities.
Black and Latino New Yorkers made up 56% of traffic stops in New York City in the first quarter of 2022, but accounted for 87% of arrests, 93% of uses of force, 89% of vehicles seized, and 82% of vehicles searched, according to NYPD reporting. 99% of the people that NYPD summonsed for jaywalking in the first quarter of 2020 were Black or Latino.
Traffic stops are among the most common interactions people have with law enforcement, and police officers often escalate these stops into deadly violence. Between 2016 and 2021, police officers killed more than 400 drivers or passengers nationwide who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or under pursuit for a violent crime, according to a New York Times analysis.
In 2016, we published our principles for racial justice in traffic justice to guide our work and advocacy in our fight to rectify police violence against people of color and remove police from traffic enforcement.
Initial police reports can be, at best, misleading and, at worst, full of lies. The initial police report from Nichols’ killing was nothing like what actually happened — an all-too-familiar occurrence following police violence. We pushed for a law transferring external communications of fatal crashes in New York City from NYPD to DOT, which was passed in 2021. We’re still fighting for this law’s implementation.
In 2020, we published our report, The Case for Self-Enforcing Streets, which called for reallocating money from the NYPD budget toward redesigning streets for safety. Self-enforcing streets use design to slow drivers down and provide safe space for pedestrians and bike riders — all without the need for police. Evidence from DOT shows that this approach works: protected bike lanes reduce sidewalk cycling and narrower roadways reduce speeding.
Last year, we fought to expand New York City’s speed safety camera program to 24/7 expansion to reduce reliance on NYPD enforcement — a doubling of the program’s hours without escalating fines for drivers. This program has successfully reduced speeding and crashes in the city — which police stops do not do — without the bias and potential for violence that armed police traffic enforcement brings. Our analysis found no correlation in speed safety camera tickets issued and race.
We have also partnered with the Center for Justice Innovation on Circles for Safe Streets, a program that uses restorative justice practices to bring victims of crashes that kill or seriously injure New Yorkers together with the drivers responsible – building true accountability that prevents future crashes and limits the harms of the carceral system.
There is more work to be done.
In the 10 City Council districts with the highest number of residents who are people of color, there are 64% fewer streets with protected bike lanes, according to Spatial Equity NYC. The City of New York must invest in building infrastructure in areas of the city that have historically been excluded from street safety projects.
On subways and buses, the impact of the MTA’s fare evasion enforcement has fallen on Black and Latino New Yorkers — who make up 88% of all arrests and 70% summonses. This enforcement focus has escalated into police violence against unarmed straphangers. Police are not the answer to fare evasion. Instead of criminalizing poverty and targeting skin color, our leaders should invest in service and solutions that address root causes.
E-bikes and micromobility devices are legal to operate on New York City streets, yet are inexplicably banned from the Hudson River Greenway and Prospect Park, for example — a ban selectively enforced by NYPD. Data show that this enforcement will disproportionately affect New Yorkers of color: In 2021, 75% of tickets to bike riders went to Black and Latino New Yorkers. Instead of targeting workers with police enforcement, our leaders should invest in infrastructure improvements in communities of color that make streets safe to use.
And on our streets, street vendors have been harassed by the police simply for trying to make a living. NYPD, with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection — now the lead enforcement agency against street vendors — has issued 33% more tickets in the first half of 2022 than 2019.
Our city’s continued reliance on police enforcement has, like always, fallen on the backs of Black and Latino New Yorkers. This must change. At Transportation Alternatives, we will continue to fight to end armed policing of our public spaces in New York City as part of the nationwide movement to end police violence against communities of color.
