U.S. cities rethinking traffic stops as Black drivers disproportionately affected – By CBS News Staff (CBS News) / May 25, 2022
A traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, started over a license plate and ended with Patrick Lyoya dead.
For his family of Congolese refugees, the death defies logic. Police officers are supposed to protect lives, not take them, his father told CBS News’ Adriana Diaz.
To prevent similar incidents from happening in their city, Schor and other Lansing officials are trying something new in the state capitoL, an hour away from Grand Rapids: in 2020, two years before Lyoya’s death, they banned traffic stops for minor infractions altogether. The goal is to avoid unnecessary escalations, racial profiling and pre-textual stops where an officer uses a minor violation to pull over and search a car. Schor said the move could save lives for both civilians and officers.
“Our police officers are still pulling people over,” Schor told CBS News. “But they’re doing it for public safety reasons.”
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