The Lansing Police Department says it will no longer stop drivers for traffic violations that do not pose a threat to public safety.
The new policy means Lansing police will not pull drivers over for so-called secondary violations. Those include things like cracked windshields, loud exhaust and broken tail lights.
LPD Chief Daryl Green says it’s an effort to protect the constitutional rights of citizens and eliminate bias-based policing.
“We’re listening to community members and obviously the current environment,” Green says. “We just want to be progressive and move these initiatives fastly through our community.”
Mayor Andy Schor says the initiative is a response to claims of bias by the police.
“We have others who have said that this is a tremendous concern within the Black community, within the Latino community, with other communities that there’s an implicit bias and they get pulled over,” Schor says. “And we’re saying we’re not going to do that.”
Green says a recent study finds nearly 15 percent of traffic stops in Lansing this year were for secondary violations.
He says anecdotal reports find persons of color are disproportionately stopped.