ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The City Council in Ann Arbor has been working on a new proposal to end certain traffic stops in the name of driving equality. As of Thursday, the Ann Arbor Police Department decided to implement their proposal effective immediately.
On Tuesday night, at the City Council Meeting, the first reading of a new ordinance called the “Driving Equality Ordinance” received unanimous approval in a 9-0 vote. With a second reading planned for July 6th, Aimee Metzer, Interim Chief of Police, expects that it will also pass unanimously and has decided to go ahead and implement the proposal.
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Metzer said in a press release on Thursday, “No law enforcement officer employed by the Ann Arbor Police Department shall stop or detain the operator of a motor vehicle based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, socio-economic status, age, cultural group, or disability.”
The press release outlines the new policies by saying, “Except where the violation is of a nature or magnitude that it poses immediate risk of harm to person(s) or property, a law enforcement officer employed by the Ann Arbor Police Department shall not stop or detain the operator or occupant of a motor vehicle based solely on one of the following offenses: cracked or chipped windshield; loud exhaust; tinted windows; object hanging from rearview mirror, unless the officer has a good faith belief that the object creates an unsafe vision obstruction; cracked, broken or burned-out taillamp where at least one tail lamp remains functional and properly illuminated; Registration plate lighting violations; registration plate violations regarding plate height or attachment as described in MCL 257.225, as amended; location of registration sticker; location of temporary or paper registration plate, so long as it remains clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle; and Registration expired less than 60 days prior to the date the officer observes the vehicle.”
Metzer concludes the statement from the police department by saying, “In an effort to continue building trust and providing equitable service to all, our department should be seeking ways to keep the community safe without the appearance of disparate treatment. I believe it is the intention of every person within this department to provide fair and impartial service to the City of Ann Arbor. I believe we will be able to continue doing this within these new parameters.”
Councilwoman Cynthia Harrison said about the new rules at the council meeting, “This frees up police to work on primary offenses.”
But what’s really behind this new proposal is an effort to combat racial profiling and disparities with Ann Arbor being the first city in the state to put this kind of ordinance in place. Harrison said, “We are trying to set an example about what policing could look like. This is a larger discussion at the county level, state level and nationally.”
The proposal states, “The City of Ann Arbor recognizes that racial inequity is endemic in our criminal justice system, and is committed to honestly examining, and actively changing, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic racial injustice in our community…Pretext stops are humiliating, traumatizing and can lead to broad distrust of law enforcement in communities of color and further exacerbate the generational trauma already suffered by families of color in our community.”
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At the public meeting concerning the proposal this week, residents were eager to get it put into place with one resident saying, “I’m asking for racial justice, I’m asking for economic justice, I ask you all to support this ordinance.”
Lisa Jackson, former chair of the Ann Arbor Independent Community Police Oversight Commission, said, “I’ve been stopped for not taking my handicap placard down soon enough after leaving a grocery store when my daughter was in a wheelchair. I’ve had colleagues stopped for having a child’s graduation tassel hanging with pride from the rearview mirror. I don’t believe that the police or anyone feel that any either of these were a threat to public safety. I’ve received [sic] them, however, to be a pretext by which to stop and interrogate people who look like me.”
Harrison said at the meeting that American policing has origins in slave patrols and white supremacy. She said, “After the Civil War, these patrols simply donned a new name, transforming into what we recognize today as formal police departments. It is crucial to remember that this metamorphosis was not without consequence. The patrols’ legacy lingered, perpetuating disproportionate targeting and control over Black people.”
Jackson has been working with the Eastern Michigan University-based SMART research team, looking at traffic stop data in the city whose findings support her view that police searches and traffic stops have been done disproportionately based on race. She said, “Non-white motorists are stopped and searched more frequently than white motorists…African American male drivers were stopped for equipment violations such as a hanging tassel over 200% more than would be expected by the data, and they were searched after such stops between 365% and 500% more than would be expected by the data. Middle Eastern male drivers were stopped 81% more often, while white female drivers were stopped less than should be expected by the data.”
Mayor Christopher Taylor says about the proposal, “It’s incredibly important that we as a municipal government assure our residents that our law enforcement focus is always the promotion of public safety performed with professionalism without bias or favor.”
Under the new proposal, the laws remain the same – but the enforcement of those laws is a different story. Like what’s being seen in the rest of the country, there are many laws on the books that are no longer being enforced – what lawmakers call “smaller” crimes. However, not enforcing the smaller crimes can lead to even larger crimes being unenforced.
That is the concern of a former Michigan police officer who expressed concerns about the city of Ann Arbor’s new proposal to Michigan News Source. With the Ann Arbor Police Department no longer having the tool of the minor traffic stop at their disposal, larger crimes will most likely go unenforced as well including drug offenses, driving while intoxicated, gun charges and more.
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