January 25, 2009 Questions arise over dramatic increase in traffic stops by Nashville Police www.privateofficer.com
Questions arise over dramatic increase in traffic stops by Nashville Police www.privateofficer.com
Nashville TN. Jan 25 2009
tennessean.com The number of cars stopped by police has more than doubled since 2003, part of a policing strategy focused on traffic stops that the police chief says has contributed to safer streets.
The steady increase in traffic stops raises concern for some civil libertarians and advocates for the Hispanic community, who say that more stops raise concerns over people’s rights being respected. Traffic stops in 2008 hit nearly 300,000, an increase of 136 percent over the number five years ago, before Metro police Chief Ronal Serpas took leadership of the department, according to preliminary police numbers.
Serpas said his traffic enforcement policies have always been driven by three goals: stopping crime, making officers more visible in high-crime neighborhoods and reducing accidents.
“I’ve never ever told a cop to write a ticket,” Serpas said. “I’ve said to stop cars, but I’ve never said to write tickets.”
The big jump in 2008 is in part because of a full roster of officers and the addition of flex units to each precinct, officers without set patrol zones who focus on traffic stops.
But Serpas also pointed out that while the number of traffic stops has soared, police have also been steadily handing out more verbal warnings. About 53 percent of people who get pulled over leave without a ticket, according to police numbers. But the number of people getting warnings is now higher than the total number stopped just five years ago.
No data is available yet for last year about the number of people arrested or searched as a result of a traffic stop, Metro police spokesman Don Aaron says.
Auto accidents decline
Serpas says his focus is on safety. Accidents with injury have declined each year since 2004, with a 10 percent drop in 2008.
“It wasn’t just good weather for five years. Something changed,” Serpas said. “We believe in the business model of educating the public on safe driving behavior and enforcement when we see unsafe behavior. We have seen, as an outcome, a reduction of accidents and accidents with injury.”
Kinard Agim was in Traffic Court on Friday to fight a ticket from a few months back for playing his music too loud. It wasn’t the first time Agim has been stopped; he was stopped just a few days ago for the same reason. The 20-year-old Tennessee State University student has been pulled over five or six times in the last two years.
“A couple times, they let me go,” Agim said of two occasions he was stopped for speeding in the Bellevue area. “One officer saw I had a clean record and was in school, and he let me go. A few here and there are understanding.”
Some of the other times, though, Agim felt like the police must have been looking for somebody when they stopped him for the volume of his music.
“Usually, they realize you’re not (what they’re looking for), write a ticket and let you go. But the last guy, he asked me over and over if I’ve been arrested.”
Agim said he hasn’t. He has a clean driving record, because he has attended traffic school for the tickets he has been written. On Friday, Judge Dan Eisenstein told Agim to turn down his music and dismissed the charge.
Stops raise concern
The sheer number of stops raises the level of concern for the NAACP, said Walter Searcy, the chairman of legal redress for the organization in Tennessee.
Searcy said there’s been no notable increase in complaints made to the NAACP about the traffic stops, and there’s not enough data to draw any conclusions about how the traffic stops are being administered.
“There’s an elevated danger that’s presented in this number when it comes to the question of lawful searches and seizures,” Searcy said. “I don’t think we can draw any conclusions, given what we know, but if there’s no appreciable increase in tickets being issued, people are either getting stopped and given a pass, or they’re being stopped for something other than traffic reasons, and traffic winds up being a pretext.”
And with the addition in 2007 of federal immigration enforcement at the jail, the high number of traffic stops has fed a steady number of arrestees into the 287g program. Illegal immigrants lost the right to get a license in 2006, and the vast majority of people sent to deportation proceedings from Nashville were initially picked up during traffic stops.
“I think it’s very disturbing that the number of stops have gone up. I cannot believe it’s because people are driving more recklessly than it was five years ago,” said Elliott Ozment, an immigration attorney. “The next question then should be, where have the stops been focused? What sections of town have they been focused, and what’s the racial background of those stopped?”
Metro police each year conduct a detailed analysis of their stops, but that information is not yet available for 2008.
tennessean.com The number of cars stopped by police has more than doubled since 2003, part of a policing strategy focused on traffic stops that the police chief says has contributed to safer streets.
The steady increase in traffic stops raises concern for some civil libertarians and advocates for the Hispanic community, who say that more stops raise concerns over people’s rights being respected. Traffic stops in 2008 hit nearly 300,000, an increase of 136 percent over the number five years ago, before Metro police Chief Ronal Serpas took leadership of the department, according to preliminary police numbers.
Serpas said his traffic enforcement policies have always been driven by three goals: stopping crime, making officers more visible in high-crime neighborhoods and reducing accidents.
“I’ve never ever told a cop to write a ticket,” Serpas said. “I’ve said to stop cars, but I’ve never said to write tickets.”
The big jump in 2008 is in part because of a full roster of officers and the addition of flex units to each precinct, officers without set patrol zones who focus on traffic stops.
But Serpas also pointed out that while the number of traffic stops has soared, police have also been steadily handing out more verbal warnings. About 53 percent of people who get pulled over leave without a ticket, according to police numbers. But the number of people getting warnings is now higher than the total number stopped just five years ago.
No data is available yet for last year about the number of people arrested or searched as a result of a traffic stop, Metro police spokesman Don Aaron says.
Auto accidents decline
Serpas says his focus is on safety. Accidents with injury have declined each year since 2004, with a 10 percent drop in 2008.
“It wasn’t just good weather for five years. Something changed,” Serpas said. “We believe in the business model of educating the public on safe driving behavior and enforcement when we see unsafe behavior. We have seen, as an outcome, a reduction of accidents and accidents with injury.”
Kinard Agim was in Traffic Court on Friday to fight a ticket from a few months back for playing his music too loud. It wasn’t the first time Agim has been stopped; he was stopped just a few days ago for the same reason. The 20-year-old Tennessee State University student has been pulled over five or six times in the last two years.
“A couple times, they let me go,” Agim said of two occasions he was stopped for speeding in the Bellevue area. “One officer saw I had a clean record and was in school, and he let me go. A few here and there are understanding.”
Some of the other times, though, Agim felt like the police must have been looking for somebody when they stopped him for the volume of his music.
“Usually, they realize you’re not (what they’re looking for), write a ticket and let you go. But the last guy, he asked me over and over if I’ve been arrested.”
Agim said he hasn’t. He has a clean driving record, because he has attended traffic school for the tickets he has been written. On Friday, Judge Dan Eisenstein told Agim to turn down his music and dismissed the charge.
Stops raise concern
The sheer number of stops raises the level of concern for the NAACP, said Walter Searcy, the chairman of legal redress for the organization in Tennessee.
Searcy said there’s been no notable increase in complaints made to the NAACP about the traffic stops, and there’s not enough data to draw any conclusions about how the traffic stops are being administered.
“There’s an elevated danger that’s presented in this number when it comes to the question of lawful searches and seizures,” Searcy said. “I don’t think we can draw any conclusions, given what we know, but if there’s no appreciable increase in tickets being issued, people are either getting stopped and given a pass, or they’re being stopped for something other than traffic reasons, and traffic winds up being a pretext.”
And with the addition in 2007 of federal immigration enforcement at the jail, the high number of traffic stops has fed a steady number of arrestees into the 287g program. Illegal immigrants lost the right to get a license in 2006, and the vast majority of people sent to deportation proceedings from Nashville were initially picked up during traffic stops.
“I think it’s very disturbing that the number of stops have gone up. I cannot believe it’s because people are driving more recklessly than it was five years ago,” said Elliott Ozment, an immigration attorney. “The next question then should be, where have the stops been focused? What sections of town have they been focused, and what’s the racial background of those stopped?”
Metro police each year conduct a detailed analysis of their stops, but that information is not yet available for 2008.
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