Protests continue to rock the nation over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody but new data shows that traffic stops since his death have dropped 80 percent.
The Minneapolis Police Department has been making an average of 80 percent fewer traffic stops each week since May 25, the day of Floyd’s death, according to an analysis by Bloomberg’s CityLab.
Not only did traffic stops drop in Minneapolis, but two other major categories of police stops also decreased after Floyd’s death.
Stops for “suspicious vehicles” — the pursuit of vehicles believed to be involved in a crime — went down 24 percent. “Suspicious person” stops — those that involve “someone who does not belong, appears out of place, or whose actions are suspect” — are down 39 percent since May 25.
There could be several reasons to account for the drops, including the phenomenon of a “pullback”— police reducing their “proactive” activity following public criticism of their performance, according to the analysis. Another reason could be the decrease in police staff. Minneapolis police officers are asking for leave at higher rates than normal.
“Either way, the trend could push Minneapolis farther from what criminal justice advocates say is an over-reliance on police to manage problems that would be better suited for unarmed, non-law enforcement officials,” Bloomberg reported.
On a typical day, police pull over 50,000 drivers, which equates to more than 20 million people a year, Athens Banner-Herald reported.
Across the U.S., there is and historically has been a racial element when it comes to traffic stops. After analyzing 100 million stops, Stanford University found that Black drivers were 20 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers. This is true too in Minneapolis. While the city is 64 percent white and 19 percent Black or African American according to 2019 census, more Black Minneapolitans are pulled over than whites.
Traffic stops in Minneapolis have drastically decreased from an average of 351 per week before May 25, 2020 to 70 per week at the end of August.
What hasn’t changed are the racial disparities. They remain intact.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
Between the end of May and the end of August, 47 percent of traffic stops recorded were of people identified as Black and 7 percent as East African — a group that makes up 11 percent of the Minneapolis populace and is largely of Somalian origin — Bloomberg reported. Only 24 percent were of people identified as white. Another 14 percent were categorized as unknown or not identified.
The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to approve a proposal to eliminate the city’s police department entirely and replace it with “a department of community safety and violence prevention, which will have responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach.” The proposal has not yet been enacted, The Truth About Cars reported.
