A pilot proposal to remove Los Angeles police from traffic enforcement is stuck in Gridlock. Again.
The move to take the task of pulling bad drivers away from police comes months after COMSTS, frustrated reform advocates and city leaders who argued Los Angeles lacked the future of road safety.
Local authorities began to raise hopes during the revival of citizenship in the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, but the program has moved forward slowly and has been starting since then. Supporters think they’ve scored a major victory with the release in May 2023 of a Long-Term Study that maps out how to create an unregulated civilian workforce.
Last summer, the City Council asked for follow-up reports from various city departments to figure out how to do that and gave a three-month deadline. But more than a year later, most of the promising learning experiences are still to be ruined.
“I’m sorry for the delay,” said Council President Markquece Harris-Dawson, one of the first winners. “Generally speaking, when you’re trying to make a big change like this, at least some part of the people who want to do the work are very motivated to change the status quo – and I don’t think we have that here.”
He said it was suspected that there were ongoing delays, but that he was encouraged by his discussions with officials from the necessary departments to allow for the re-safety of vehicles.
At the same time, he said he still showed a group of armed police in certain traffic situations.
“I don’t even think we need to pull people over for traffic violations, especially for traffic violations, especially for those who are not doing 90 miles an hour on Crenshaw boulevard, that person needs to be stopped by someone with a gun.”
In a heated vote in June 2024, the council directed the city’s transportation workers and other departments to return within 90 days for more days to find traffic problems and investigate accidents. Also under scrutiny were ideas to limit fines to poor communities and to end up stopping less access, such as expired tags or air arrenenenen hanging in the background.
Of the requests or requests made by the Council, only two reports by the City’s Department of Transportation have been completed so far, officials said.
Both of these studies – one parking and inspection fines, while the other considers that the infrastructure called “self-policing and other reforms of the AD HOC committee focus on other police methods, according to the Ladot Spokesman. The Committee will need to approve the reports before they are made by the full council, said a short statement.
Senior Legal Analyst Sharon TSO, the Council’s top policy adviser, said she understands the frustration of the delay. He said the hectic timeline was at least partly due to difficulties in obtaining reliable data from other departments involved, but declined to point any fingers. Two additional reports are in the final stages of completion and should be released later this year, he said.
Although senior officials of the Lapd have signed a willingness to stop certain traffic operations, others within the Department dismissed the same proposals as proposals and argued that the city needs to crack down hard in the long run when it comes to killing people.
Privately, some police chiefs and officials complain about what they see as politicians and activists taking away an effective tool to help get guns and drugs off the streets. They argue that traffic stops – if done properly and constitutionally – also prevent reckless driving.
Recently passed legislation has allowed the use of automated speed cameras on a drive-by basis in LA and a handful of other California cities.
Some advocates, however, are leery of technology dependence and punitive damages that can perpetuate historical damage, especially in communities of color.
“It’s been a puruecucratic slog,” said Chauncee Smith, of Catalyst California, which is part of a broader coalition of lobbying lobbying groups pushing for an end to all equipment and incentives violations.
While L.A. spent more than a year finishing “studying the lesson,” he said, places like Virginia, Connecticut and Philadelphia have taken reasonable steps to divert traffic through some ground-level police stations.
He pointed to a growing research in other cities that shows road improvements in roads with warm materials were very successful in changing driving habits, ultimately reducing the number of road-related deaths and serious injuries beyond the threat of interference. But he also acknowledged the difficulty of implementing popular reforms in La differently to planning and delivering infrastructure projects.
Smith and other attorneys have also banned what are known as detective stops, where police officers use minor violations as justification to stop someone to investigate if they should investigate whether a serious crime may have occurred.
The lapd has learned from this trend in recent years under intense public pressure but has never left it. Other changes would require legislation and are likely to face strong union opposition from police unions such as the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which has been widely criticized for the policy.
Leslie Johnson, Chief Community Engagement Officer, HOLY NONNOFFIT, says that despite that the organization plans to press forward with public safety efforts and ensure that the results of the study are not buried like previous efforts. He said there was a renewed push to push for reform after a recent high-profile court ruling that critics say opened the door to racial profiling.
“Even though we’re a sanctuary city, we’re concerned that these unreserved stops could be woken up” by the state’s shipping authorities, he said.
