A local activist group in Oakland is calling for a dramatic change. They want to take traffic enforcement away from police departments statewide.
“It’s critical,” said Cat Brooks, cofounder of Anti Police Terror Project (APTP). “It’s literally life and death.”
They took to the streets this weekend to protest the killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis during a traffic stop, and now, the group is calling for some dramatic changes at home.
“Traffic stops are one of the primary ways that Black and Brown folks get entangled in the legal system and once we are entangled it is very hard to get out,” said Brooks. “They are also often the in-sighting incident to daily and deadly acts to violence”
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Brooks is working with lawmakers and organizations across California to propose a bill that would ban police from making traffic stops. Instead, a separate unarmed agency would be charged with enforcing laws on the road.
Implementation will look different in various parts of the state, but would include people who are trained in desecration and self defense.
It's a proposal that has been criticized by law enforcement groups nationally as dangerous. With many critics arguing that traffic stops are key to cracking much bigger cases.
“I know that the backlash is going to be ‘well what about the violent people; I just need folks to know those are rare occurrences,” said Brooks.
Similar proposals have been made previously. San Francisco is still working out the details after their police commission voted this month to ban police from making several low level traffic stops.
In Berkeley, the city voted to turn traffic control over to another agency in 2021. However, until state law is changed, officers still have the ability to enforce the law for any violation.
“We are literally talking about amending the state constitution,” said Brooks.
It’s a proposal two years in the making. APTP believes making the change will save lives.
They say they expect to see movement in the coming weeks and hope to eventually see it spread nationwide.
“This conversation about civilianizing things that law enforcement does that often escalate and lead to violence is hanging on, it's growing,” said Brooks.
NBC Bay Area reached out to several law enforcement agencies, police commissions and cities throughout the Bay Area, but all declined to comment.
