Do Traffic Stops Contribute to Public Safety?

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Getting pulled over is the most common encounter Americans have with police, but how much do traffic stops really contribute to public safety? On a typical day, more than 50,000 of us see those flashing lights in our rearview, so we generally assume that enforcing traffic laws is an essential part of policing and public safety. Do traffic stops contribute to public safety as much as we expect? It’s clear the effects are not equal: across the nation, drivers of color are much more likely to get pulled over, and a troubling number of incidents where Black men are killed by police, start with a traffic stop. In this podcast episode, we’ll hear perspectives from both sides of the car window and explore how traffic enforcement could better ensure safety for all. Podcast Guests: Alexander Landau, founder and Director of Community Relations for Denver Justice Project. Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile and President of the Philando Castile Relief Foundation. Officer Mark Ross, St. Paul police officer and President of the St. Paul Police Federation. Dr. Thaddeus Johnson, Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University, Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, and former Memphis police officer. **This episode is part of Season 4 on Top of Mind: Assessing Assumptions. Could the systems we've built to keep our communities safe and thriving work better if we weren't so set in our ways?