Traffic stops. Commonly known as pulling someone over, it’s one of the most iconic jobs police officers undertake on a daily routine.
But in Berkeley, the City Council is planning on handing over this role to civilian city workers. Berkeley’s Mayor Jesse Arreguin said in a council meeting last week that people have wrongly equated more police with more safety for far too long.
The police reform is intended to address the issue of racial profiling as well as the shooting of unarmed minorities.
Robert Brown, criminal attorney and former NYPD captain, says it’s a noble goal but doubts it will be effective.
“If their goal is to eliminate racial profiling, first of all, what’s to say that the people they hire don’t racially profile?” the attorney said.
Some say that by having unarmed personnel conduct traffic stops, the interaction cannot escalate into violence.
Brown agrees that there will be no escalation, but civilian workers would be in serious danger.
He said, “It’s only escalation if the police have a gun also, right? If the unarmed traffic agent that they envision doesn’t have a gun, then they’re just going to get attacked, assaulted, potentially killed. There’s no escalation, they’re just going to be victims.”
Replacing officers with city workers is part of the city’s broad overhaul of its law enforcement.
The City Council has set a goal of cutting the police budget by 50 percent, and some have pledged to make the use of police force “as restrictive as possible.”
Brown says these changes, specifically with conducting traffic stops, could make things worse by emboldening criminals.
“You don’t have the authority to do a traffic stop. Even if they run a red light right in front of a uniformed police officer in a marked car, they won’t be able to pull the car over,” Brown said.
The reform plan also seeks to stop armed officers from responding to mental health calls and doing homeless outreach.
Brown suggests for more training and that all officers wear body cameras to deter them from abusing their power.
