Driving Equality law marks 1 year, city and civic leaders praise success in improving police relations

PHILADELPHIA - It’s been one year since a law went into effect in Philadelphia, meant to combat racial profiling and make traffic stops more equitable across the city. The controversial measure banned traffic stops for minor infractions like bumper issues and driving with missing headlights.

"If pulling people over made this city safer? I’d be the first volunteer for my rights to be violated. But, it doesn’t work," Councilman Isaiah Thomas, author of the 2022 bill, stated.

Councilman Thomas says traffic stops have never been effective in reducing crime and reducing racial disparities in parkway pullovers is something attorney Nia Holston of the Abolitionist Law Center says was visibly overdue.

"That these stops can create harm, rather than prevent it is something that we have increasingly witnessed via videos on social media in the last few years," Holston explained. "We can see the names of folks that we know who have seen, who have died, at the hands of these traffic stops."

Driving Equality reclassifies eight violations as secondary. Things like late registration, a broken tail light or a missing inspection sticker, for example. Police can no longer stop a vehicle just for one of those. Lance Hannon, of the Driving Equality Accountability Group, says good. More dangerous moving violations are now top reasons for stops and should be.

"The top two reasons for traffic stops following the implementation of Driver Equality are failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to stop at a red light. Violations that make more sense to address with a traffic stop, as they pose more of a clear threat to public safety," Hannon explained.

Thomas says towns around Pittsburgh, Memphis and Rochester have reached out about doing their own versions of the law, but some say the legislation kills effective police work. Philly FOP sued the city a year ago to knock down the legislation.

FOP President John McNesby told FOX 29’s Hank Flynn he expects the law to be struck down by a judge any day, so police can do their jobs again.

Thomas says, like any town, Philly will enforce state laws locally.

"We’ve seen it with the choke hold bill. We’ve seen it with how we deal with marijuana," Thomas said. "At the end of the day, we didn’t change the state law. The state law is the state law. All we said is this is how we’re going to enforce the laws."