Listen to this note:
By Grace Marion. Bay City News.
San Francisco Police Commission members voted to enact a new policy aimed at curbing the use of racially biased pretexts in stops by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), according to a Friday press release from the San Francisco Public Advocate's Office.
The new policy, Department General Order 9.07, was subject to a public engagement process that lasted more than a year and nearly a full year of negotiation with the Police Officers Association.
“The Police Commission’s vote to restrict pretextual stops is an important step toward reducing racist policing tactics in which police officers disproportionately stop and search Black and brown people under the guise of traffic control,” said Yoel Haile, Director of the ACLU of Northern California’s Criminal Justice Program.
“We will now work to ensure that SFPD implements the policy to prevent unnecessary encounters between police officers and San Francisco residents that too often escalate and end in tragedy,” he added.
The new policy prohibits officers from using a list of nine minor traffic violations as a pretext for investigating other crimes, but still allows officers to issue tickets for those violations when stopping vehicles for other reasons or while investigating other crimes.
The nine non-priority violations include: having only one license plate displayed, having an expired vehicle registration that is out of date for one year or less, failing to illuminate the rear license plate of a vehicle, driving without taillights on or in operation, driving without rear brake lights on or in operation, having objects in the windows of a vehicle or hanging from the rearview mirror, failing to activate a turn signal more than 100 feet before turning, sleeping in a parked vehicle, and any California Vehicle Code pedestrian violation.
There are some exceptions to this list. For example, police can still stop vehicles driving without taillights on or working if it is nighttime and vehicles driving without rear brake lights on or working if none of the lights are on.
Additionally, police can still stop vehicles for unsafe turns or lane changes and can stop pedestrians to prevent an imminent crash.
The ordinance explicitly allows hanging things like air fresheners and rosaries from rearview mirrors, but objects that obstruct a driver's vision in a way that substantially increases the likelihood of an accident are not allowed and can still lead police to stop a vehicle.
None of the deprioritizations apply to commercial vehicles, and any vehicle can still be stopped during a traffic accident investigation.
Other exceptions to the order include allowing police to stop a person or motor vehicle that matches the description of a suspect, or suspect vehicle, involved in a felony where the risk of death or life-threatening injury is imminent if the suspect is not immediately apprehended.
Applicable felonies include, but are not limited to, murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, armed robbery, kidnapping, forcible sexual offense, and any felony committed against a child.
The SFPD's own data showed that SFPD officers stopped Black people at a rate six times higher than white people, searched them at a rate more than 10 times higher than white people, and used force against them at a rate more than 21 times higher than white people, according to a news release.
The order also limited SFPD officers to asking investigative questions only in vehicle stops about criminal activity when the belief that criminal activity is occurring, has occurred, or is about to occur is supported by reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
“While voting to enact this policy limiting racially biased stops is an important step, we recognize that more work needs to be done to heal the harms inflicted on communities of color by decades of overpolicing and underinvestment,” San Francisco Public Advocate Mano Raju said in a Friday news release.
“My office looks forward to participating in the implementation of this pretext policy by informing the public of their rights. The fight for racial justice continues.”
The commission ordered the police department to implement the new policy within 90 days.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the CaliFornia State Library.
You may be interested in: Despite changes in the video game industry, women do not feel welcome in it
