David Brauer wrote:
"Strib story reveals 63 percent drop in traffic stops ... Good thing? Unsanctioned
work slowdown?"
Now, the following is a semi-informed (not being an officer) guess at an answer to
those two questions. It's based on 6 years of watching a handful of officers
representing a fairly broad cross-section of the MPD.
When I started at SAFE (1995), my partner and I had an interesting conversation with
an officer who had come from the Wash. DC PD. This officer was convinced that traffic
stops were "thee ticket," pun intended. A quote: "To manage crime, you manage the
criminal population." And something to the effect that, sooner or later with traffic
stops, you'll run across the Timothy McVeighs of the world.
My partner asked him, "And how many of those wanted felons you pulled over are still
in prison?" "Virtually none," the traffic enforcer extraordinare replied, on the
common theme of "the courts just let 'em out anyway." So very early on I have mulled
over just how big an impact traffic stops have on the big crime picture, given that
the individuals so snared seemed to evade punishment. If I remember the stats on the
city web page correctly, in 1999 there were some 70,000 traffic stops out of 400,000
or so calls for police service in the city.
I can't read any officers' minds but the advantage of a traffic stop over other
enforcement may rest in the fact that there is control from beginning to end of the
situation. In a job where your tasks of the day are so inherently unpredictable,
picking the opportunity to narrow the range of potential conflicts doesn't seem like
such a bad strategy. Besides, if someone sees another driver run a red light, and
sees that you saw them run a red light, you know the Chief's office will get a While
You Were Out slip with your squad # on it and choice verbage about the officers'
character.
Also, a squad merely cruising by and gone in half a minute has little of the impact of
a squad with the tractor beam latched on to the miscreant vehicle, Mars bar flashing
and bumper jutting out into the traffic lane. People in neighborhoods overrun with
violent crime, seeing the cherry blips through their curtains at two in the morning
often don't mind being awakened, and feel that at least for a moment, nobody's going
to get away with anything on their block.
That said, with CODEFOR all previous tactics and ingrained habits are on the table for
reconsideration. It should be noted that even with the drop in traffic stops, crime
year-to-date 2001 in Mpls is still dropping, in fact it is dwindling precipitously in
most precincts.
Not that the question of profiling shouldn't be asked. But when it is asked, and how
it is asked, could naturally offend the officers who (as with all the cops I know)
stop a vehicle because they see the traffic violation first, and see the driver after
they begin to pull the car over (or on a slow night, they see that the registered
vehicle owners' license is suspended, revoked, etc., from running license plates,
ergo are behooved to pull over the vehicle). It shouldn't surprise anyone without a
pathological bent against law enforcement that officers whose integrity is questioned
may think twice about stopping that car that turned on red at a no-turn-on-red corner
(an aside, are there any corners left without those dang signs?!)...
The question "Good thing?" can be split into two questions, Do traffic stops have a
significant impact on crime? It may prove to be that, with the continued drop in
crime city-wide, random traffic stops will no longer so frequently practised. And is
that a good thing? As one neighbor of mine put it, "Look at how many people wouldn't
have the opportunity to get tickets to Mr. McVeigh's execution." A crass thing to say
but then, we may never have brought such a person to justice without that innocuous
traffic stop hours after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Luther Krueger
Lyndale N'hood 825-6281 Ward 8 Pct. 13 State dist 61B
MPD Downtown Command SAFE 673-2923
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