Philadelphia’s driving equality law reduced traffic stops but not racial disparities in its first year

A Philadelphia law that bars police from pulling over drivers for some minor infractions contributed to a decline in traffic stops during its first year, but it did not meet its proponents’ stated goal of reducing racial disparities associated with those stops.

The city’s “driving equality” legislation, which passed City Council in 2021 and took effect in March 2022, classified eight low-level traffic violations, such as driving with a damaged bumper or a broken headlight, as “secondary,” meaning they couldn’t be the sole reason a driver was pulled over by police. Authorities were supposed to send tickets for those infractions instead.

Traffic stops associated with the targeted violations dropped by 54%, or nearly 16,000 interactions, between 2021 and 2022, according to Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the bill’s author. His office worked with the Defender Association of Philadelphia to study traffic stops that took place in the first seven months of the legislation’s implementation.

But during that time, the proportion of drivers pulled over who were Black was unchanged, an analysis shows. And stops for nontargeted reasons, such as running a red light or having excessive window tint, went up by nearly 20%.

Thomas said Friday that the legislation achieved its intended goal of reducing the number of Black people pulled over and freed police to pursue more serious traffic violations. He rejected criticism that the legislation has made the city less safe or hampered efforts to confront the gun violence crisis.

“Shame on anybody who tries to say that because we’re fighting for the plight of Black people that we’re trying to put ourselves in a position to make the city more dangerous,” he said. “At some point, somebody has to stand up and say ‘Black people know what’s best for Black people.’ ”

» READ MORE: These are the 8 traffic violations affected by driving equality legislation

Proponents have argued that refocusing police attention away from minor infractions could make the city safer through more effective policing. But the most serious violations — speeding or careless driving — still constitute less than 5% of police stops.

While stops associated with some issues covered by the bill were virtually eliminated — such as stops for expired emissions tags, which dropped by 95% — other categories were slower to fall. Officers still stopped about 8,400 drivers for lighting violations, for example, and another 4,600 people were stopped for having expired registration tags.

Cpl. Jasmine Reilly, a Police Department spokesperson, said there could be “any number of reasons for why this reduction isn’t lower,” such as errors in data entry by police, who might pull a driver over for several reasons but say it was for one of the offenses covered by the bill.

Some of the infractions also have exceptions that do not constitute an outright ban: Officers can still stop a motorist whose registration has been expired for more than 60 days, and stops for lighting issues are still permitted if the vehicle has more than one busted headlight or taillight.

Reilly acknowledged that “change in a large workforce does not happen overnight.” She said the department expects the number of traffic stops associated with the violations will decline further “as officers adapt to these new policies.”

Philadelphia was the first major U.S. city to ban the so-called pretextual stops for some infractions, a tactic that some law enforcement agencies have encouraged as a means of searching cars for illegal guns or drugs. Studies have shown that Black and brown drivers are stopped at disproportionate rates, and advocates contend the rate at which officers find guns does not contribute meaningfully to public safety.

» READ MORE: Memphis to consider version of Philadelphia law that bans minor traffic stops in response to Tyre Nichols killing

Still, the legislation has generated considerable controversy. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 sued the city in an effort to overturn it, and that lawsuit is pending.

And last summer, the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission signaled that the Police Department could lose its accreditation over the law. The group ultimately backed away, and the department retained its status.

Thomas, an at-large member, has said car stops are an ineffective means of seizing illegal guns, and that they exacerbate what’s become known as “driving while Black.” In pressing for the legislation, Thomas’ office cited 2019 data showing that 72% of vehicle code violations were assessed against Black drivers while Black people make up 43% of the city’s population.

Those percentages hardly moved during the first year of the legislation, something Thomas said will be studied further by experts who convene monthly and review the law’s impact. He said it’s still meaningful that thousands of people avoided a traffic stop and did not go through what he said can be a “humiliating” experience.

Carl Day, a North Philadelphia pastor who mentors young Black men, said any reduction in unnecessary police encounters should be celebrated.

“These are traumatic experiences for Black and brown people that have been going on for decades,” he said.

Overall, traffic stops have declined by about 7% since the legislation was implemented compared to the previous year.

Even before the the law took effect, traffic stops had been plummeting. According to police data, there were an average of 330,000 vehicle stops each year between 2015 and 2019. The number was more than halved in 2020 and 2021 amid the pandemic.

Some aspects of the legislation remain a work-in-progress.

Under terms of a companion bill passed by Council in 2021, the Police Department was required to add details to the information it already publishes on vehicle stops, such as the primary and secondary violations that caused an officer to pull a car over, or what types of contraband an officer found during a stop.

But the department hasn’t done that yet, complicating efforts to fully assess the legislation’s impact.

Reilly, the police spokesperson, said the department’s software was built before the legislation was considered and “was not built robustly enough to house the additional requirements.” Police did tweak the system in December, and are looking to replace it altogether in the future.