Los Angeles Police Will Have To Justify 'Pretextual Stops' Or Face Discipline
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Commission changed its policy on "pretextual stops" requiring officers to justify why someone was stopped on their body cameras.
If they cannot, justify why a traffic or other minor violation escalates into a criminal investigation they will be disciplined — beginning with additional training.
Commission President William Briggs claimed that findings from the Office of the Inspector General led to the commission requesting the department to change its policy. According to the OIG report, pretextual stops in 2019 had "pretty substantial racial disparities" with very few of them leading to any evidence of serious crimes or arrests.
"I've never met an African American male. I've never met very many Latino males, and frankly others who haven't been stopped, not given a reason, asked a zillion questions," said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. "And frankly fearing for you life in those situations."
The Los Angeles Police Department defines a pretextual stop as one in which officers conducting a minor traffic or code violation escalate it into an investigation of a more serious crime unrelated to the initial violation.
"Those pretextual stops do not result in guns being taken off the streets, those pretextual stops do not result in curtailing murders and curtailing shootings," said Briggs. "There is no data that anyone can point to that establishes that pretextual stops curtail violent crime in our city."
Briggs added that data for the Racial and Identity Profiling Act supported his claim.
According to the updated policy, officers can use their "training, experience and expertise" to justify why they initiated the stuff. The policy, which begins this summer, prohibits officers from initiating pretextual stops from a "mere hunch or generalized characteristics," including race. Violating the policy will result in escalating punishments with every penalty each beginning with counseling and retraining.
While she is against pretextual stops, Paula Minor doesn't believe the policy change will make a difference.
"They may say they stopped you because they are investigating a crime or come up with a reason," said Minor, a Black Lives Matter L.A. member. "We just hope that no additional harm or bad situations occur that end up with someone being injured or murdered"
The union that represents Los Angeles police, said that the changes will hinder public safety.
"We want to come up with ways to reduce biases and we want reform, but we want it to be fair for our officers and we want it to actually work," said Los Angeles Police Protective League director Joe Massie.
He claims that a large number of illegal guns are seized during traffic and pedestrian stops. According to the LAPPL, in 2021 the Newton Divison of LAPD recovered 817 firearms during 726 incidents. Of those incidents 699 arrests were made, 507 of which came after traffic stops.
"This is going to leave those guns — leave those bad drivers on the road and it's going to hurt people of all communities regardless of your skin color," said Massie.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
