Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Berkeley to propose eliminating police from traffic stops, enforcement

https://abc7news.com/society/berkel...from-traffic-stops-enforcement-/6310534/

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- In the East Bay, in what's believed to be a first in the nation proposal, the City of Berkeley has proposed ending police traffic enforcement.

Next week, Berkeley's City Council will vote on a proposal to create a Department of Transportation and use employees in that department to make traffic stops instead of Berkeley Police officers.


"Most traffic stops don't really warrant a police officer," said Darrel Owens, the co-executive of East Bay for Everyone, a housing and traffic non-profit. He helped pitch the new, one-year plan to Berkeley City Council. He says ideally the city would take money away from Berkeley PD to fund the new department.

"A minor traffic violation should not have resulted in the murder of a black or brown body, but at the same time we can also re-examine the nature of punitive law enforcement and broken windows policing that makes traffic enforcement so deadly to begin with."

Berkeley's no stranger to radical ideas, but when it comes to this proposal, many people ABC7 spoke to in Downtown Berkeley were not necessarily ready for this new idea.

"That's crazy," said Adrian, who works in Berkeley and did not want to share his last name. He does not think the proposal is a good idea. "Doing traffic stops is also a dangerous job. You don't know who you're stopping!"

"Policeman are trained to deal with those situations," said Patricia Kipnis, who has lived in Berkeley for 30 years. She's not surprised that the plan was proposed in Berkeley, but she does not support it.

"I think the police need to be doing what they do best, which is securing the safety of our population, including traffic violations."

But, Berkeley resident, Tim Davis, has a different perspective.


"I get stopped when I'm in my car many times and there's no straight answer for it... and you know what it's about, it's about skin color," said Davis, who added, "I don't think police should do everything in the City."

"We don't want to inhibit apprehending dangerous criminals or drunk drivers. That is not the intent," said Berkeley City councilmember, Lori Droste.

Along with the Mayor, Droste and two other Berkeley councilmembers are sponsoring the proposal.

"A serious discussion of the role of modern policing is incomplete without a conversation around traffic enforcement."

Droste says it's unclear right now where the funding for the program might come from.

Next week's vote is to begin the community engagement process.

So we take money from an already established department to fund a new department to do the same work. Liberals and their infinite wisdom at work.

It's a great idea. It frees up a lot more LEO to stand around and watch riots.

What could possibly go wrong with this brilliant idea?

So when some young idiot jumps in a car, blasts the music, plays with their cell phone while driving 100 mph on a public street hits and kills someone, who will be to blame? Berkeley is a college town. I assure you the above scenario will happen at some point.

A TSA solution to traffic control. I agree. What could possibly go wrong?

Conversations with our local state police find them making frequent DUI, drug running, and poaching cases that were initiated as traffic stops. Every perp is always a pillar of society and cooperative to a fault. The genius that thought the above up is worthy of a pay raise.

Not,

You know, if this was the only type of auto infraction (unsafe, excessive speeding not loud music) they concentrated on and bothered with it would be ok with me. In my little town we have a patrol officer who's only job is to write ticky/tacky tickets and generate revenue. I call them, "Roadside tax collectors." 5 mph over a limit can get you a ticket, that will get plead down to a non-moving violation so that the town doesn't have to share the fine $ with the State. I'm tired of law enforcement being seen as a revenue source that the Town counts on in figuring their budgets. Stops & tickets for things like a tail light out is just BS. As if we have any control when a light goes out. There are too many BS reasons for a stop that are just an excuse to go looking for other stuff ("mind if we search your car?") "Yeah, I do mind." Oh then you'll get the dog that's trained to alert when the officer points at the door. I know. It's these kind of BS games that need to end. In my opinion, any time a dog alerts where nothing is found, the dog should be retired.

Much of the bad PR the police has was brought on by their behavior. I don't believe in defunding the police but I do think that we need to rethink how they are trained and used.

Really? That's what you took from my post? I was talking about causing a traffic fatality, not just speeding. Did you miss this part: "hits and kills someone"?

It’s all fun and games until a Dept of Transportation agent is shot in the face for attempting to issue a citation.

But hey.....maybe I’m reading the room wrong.

Will these DOT employees have firearms, and the authority to arrest?

Or will they need to call a police officer when things get sporty?....and they are bleeding-out on the side of the road.

Put the liberal soy boys and girls on the traffic enforcement detail.....see how they like getting shot in the face.

Traffic enforcement is less about "law enforcement" or public safety than about revenue generation. Cities couldn't care less who enforces traffic laws, provided the money keeps rolling in.

I've seen enough Live PD to realize that a lot of criminal activity is detected and arrests made, incidental to traffic stops.

Daytime commuter traffic is one thing. At night, it's a different ballgame.

I'm for it. I think they can accomplish several things here if they do it right. First, they need to hire black men and women for the DOT traffic enforcement squad. That will give jobs to minority populations. There is a lot of talk around that issue so here is a way to show some forward progress. Data MUST be collected on the stops and a long term study done on who gets stopped, who gets warnings, who gets citations and who resist and assaults the DOT traffic squad. I believe that would reveal some VERY interesting trends.

Sure it’s easy to write a ticket for expired registration and give it to Todd the student. What about Bob the sh*tbird on felony probation in the stolen car that is determined to never see the inside of a jail cell again?

I support the move and will enjoy it turning out exactly like Chaz/Chop and the other liberal bubble utopia moves.

In a liberal utopia, everyone will respect the law. The traffic social workers will be in no danger at all...right?

Foxnews is reporting the St. Petersburg, FL will no longer send police on non-violent 911 calls. They're sending social workers. So, how often has a non-violent call turned violent? I'm betting it's happened a lot.

Photo radar vans and stoplight cameras will proliferate. Lovely, just freaking lovely.

Big Brother is watching YOU!

L.W.

If non criminal blacks dont like being stopped maybe they should demand their cousins get their chit together.

They are being stopped because they do look like the ones causing most of the trouble

Tell me why I saw three diff black.males ( young ) walking near convenience stores wearing hoodies in 94 fuggin degree heat?

Style?