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Police officers in East Lansing will again be able to pull people over for driving vehicles with loud exhausts.
East Lansing City Council members voted Tuesday night to remove having a loud exhaust from a list of traffic offenses that officers are prohibited from using as the basis for initiating a traffic stop.
Public commenters at previous City Council meetings have raised concerns about noise levels in downtown East Lansing, largely as a result of vehicles.
But East Lansing resident Dana Watson, who retired from City Council last year, said the change could lead to racial profiling if calibrated decibel meters are not used for enforcement.
“We demand a shift from officer discretion to empirical data. Failing to do so confirms that these stops are not about noise, they are about over policing,” Watson said. “A badge isn’t a decibel reader. We demand proof, not profiling.”
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East Lansing Police Chief Jen Brown said the East Lansing Police Department will spend the next month educating drivers about the ordinance change.
She said the department’s main focus will be on vehicles with aftermarket modified exhaust systems.
“I was actually driving here and driving behind a vehicle that had the loudest exhaust,” Brown said. “It was clearly an aftermarket modification. And I thought to myself, ‘Okay, this is exactly whatt I’m going to City Council to talk about tonight.’”
City Council members will discuss lifting a ban on other pretextual traffic stops, including tinted windows and burnt-out taillights, during a discussion-only meeting next week.
They will also continue discussing an ordinance that would prohibit loitering in city parking structures and camping in public areas.
The camping and loitering ordinance was on the business agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting, but City Council members voted to delay taking action until February.
