Former police chief: Cops often aren't pulling people over in the midst of a crime wave...why?

For anyone who drives America’s highways regularly, one thing that has been glaringly apparent over the past few years is how horrifically bad drivers have become. Trips on our interstate system are a journey into the real-wmorld version of a NASCAR video game. It isn’t unusual to be proceeding along at 75 mph only to have cars pass you as if you were standing still.

That reckless driving has translated to the number of fatal crashes increasing by over 16% between 2018 and 2022, according to USA Today. 

One thing that has become glaringly obvious is the apparent lack of traffic enforcement on the highways. Some states still show a decent police presence on the roads–Massachusetts comes to mind. In other states, however, the lack of police on the streets is apparent. Connecticut, for example, comes to mind. 

So, what is the reason? Why is it so apparent that police officers are no longer engaged in traffic enforcement? The reasons can be clearly apparent–many police agencies, the Connecticut State Police, for example–are short-staffed. For example, earlier this year, a report said the CSP was short 300 troopers, with over 400 having retired or resigned over the previous four years. Connecticut is authorized for 1150 troopers. 

A report earlier this year from WFSB-3 said there were over 1,000 police vacancies in municipal departments across Connecticut. Embedded in that WFSB story was one reason that departments are having trouble attracting recruits. 

For example, the article states that New Haven, one of the more violent cities in the state, was “committed to diversity, inclusion, and building the community’s trust.” There is nothing about attracting the best and brightest to law enforcement, which used to be a great career with outstanding benefits. 

Now, lawmakers in liberal states have removed qualified immunity from police officers, which now means their personal wealth is at risk every time they go out on the street. With that in mind, why would anyone risk their financial security by stopping a vehicle? Especially with the increase in assaults on police officers and cops being sued for looking at someone the wrong way? 

Then, there is the issue of the country’s obsession with racial justice. Any time a police officer pulls over a car that happens to be occupied by minorities, that officer is at risk of being accused of racial profiling, no matter what the race of the police officer is.

As a result of police officers being accused of profiling, many departments across the country have seen themselves put under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice after so-called “pattern or practice” investigations. Some are then subject to “consent decrees,” which ultimately tie the hands of police officers in those respective departments. 

A piece in Substack, written by Leighton Woodhouse and Eitan Levy Keating, explains why, amid a violent crime wave, police officers have virtually unplugged themselves from conducting traffic stops, which in the past have proven to be a vital tool in solving major crimes (see the Oklahoma City bombing). 

The Substack explains that the current situation goes back a couple of decades, during which so-called “police reform activists” have claimed traffic stops are often “pretextual” in nature. In other words, the stops are made solely to investigate traffic offenders for other crimes. Those stops are, therefore, activists claim, a form of racial profiling. 

In 1999, the ACLU, which was absent during the COVID-19 days as governments across the country trampled on citizens’ Constitutional rights, issued a report called “Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation’s Highway,” which was a probable response to a Supreme Court ruling from 1996 in which they ruled any traffic violation is a legitimate basis for a traffic stop. 

In 2015, after the Ferguson, Missouri, anti-police riots after a police officer killed criminal thug Michael Brown after Brown attempted to get his firearm, the New York Times published an “investigation” on so-called racial disparities in traffic stops in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

In response to the push by anti-police, pro-criminal advocates, cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco banned so-called pretextual stops. Meanwhile, the Substack piece notes that Los Angeles and the Commonwealth of Virginia have strictly limited such stops. 

However, those policies have not had the result one might expect from “anti-racial profiling” restrictions. Oakland, California, for example, has seen an 80% decrease in traffic stops between 2016 to present. Conversely, crime has risen by 30%, according to a study by Timothy Gardner, an Oakland resident with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. There is little evidence of a reduction in racial disparities in traffic stops. 

In the case of Oakland, the drop in traffic stops isn’t a case of reduced staffing. In 2014, Oakland had about 100 fewer officers than it does today, however, it made five times the traffic stops. 

The article notes many factors impact crime rates. Those include “police staffing, prosecution rates, drug addiction, the prevalence of firearms, and myriad cultural and economic factors.” 

Traffic stops, however, are one of the most significant factors concerning the suppression of crime since “they are the principal way that police initiate contact with civilians,” according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Traffic stops are, therefore, the primary way police officers intercept criminal suspects proactively. 

In the case of Oakland, the decrease in traffic stops is primarily comprised of discretionary police stops–those initiated by police officers. Stops initiated by dispatchers, such as receipt of a 911 call reporting a violation, have not fallen over the same period. The writers note that Oakland receives a “staggering number of 911 calls,” which may make it difficult, if not impossible, for officers to conduct discretionary stops. 

The data does not back that up, however. For example, between July and September of this year, according to Oakland PD’s statistics, the district with the “fewest non-dispatch stops (5) made only 68 dispatch stops–for each officer, one dispatch stop every week and a half.” Those statistics do not back up the theory that officers are inundated with stops related to 911 calls. 

Statistics further showed that over the past year, between October 2022 and September 2023, Oakland PD officers made fewer dispatch traffic stops than non-dispatch stops. 

“I cannot convey to you how mortifying those stats are to me,” said a retired Oakland police officer to the writers. 

 Gardner says the rise in crime is a “predictable result” of the suppression of policing. 

‘It has contributed to a state of lawlessness where anything goes, and police will do nothing,” Gardner said. 

In the case of Oakland, Gardner believes an additional 300 car thefts occur each month in Oakland due to plummeting traffic stops. He notes this statistic is significant because stolen cars are often used to commit additional crimes. He said, “A rise in car thefts tends to mean a rise in other categories of crime as well.” 

The reduction of traffic stops is a clear contributing factor to the increase in crime, as is the fact that far-left district attorneys are more interested in appeasing social justice warriors than prosecuting criminals. 

Related to that is the probability that police officers simply believe there is no point in putting their lives on the line for people who simply don’t give a crap about them and for a legal system that flips them a virtual middle finger every time they allow a criminal to walk free. 

In the case of Oakland, voters are so frustrated with the crime explosion in the city that there is a move afoot to recall their far-left district attorney, as happened a while back in neighboring San Francisco. 

That doesn’t negate the probability that the left’s attack on pretextual traffic stops has had a related impact on the increase in crime. It’s not just in Oakland–it’s all across the United States.