Police chief proposes new program: Vouchers, not tickets, at some traffic stops
By Lauren Brigman
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ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — The City of Asheville’s public safety committee met virtually on Wednesday, Nov. 17 to discuss matters relating to the Asheville Police Department.
In that meeting, Asheville Police Chief David Zack proposed a new initiative aimed at building goodwill between the community and the department by handing out vouchers instead of tickets for certain types of traffic stops.
“Under the program, officers on traffic stops — when we have a lighting defect — rather than cite the driver, we will give the driver a voucher in order to get the lights repaired. Each voucher provides up to $250 to the operator of the vehicle to get their equipment fixed,” Zack explained.
The Lights On initiative comes after city council passed a resolution in 2018 asking the police department to de-emphasize police enforcement of violations that do not directly impact public safety, like expired registrations and vehicle equipment violations.
Zack says safety stops are prioritized in the city, and this new program is evidence of that. He’s looking to kick off the program in 2022. The program was presented for discussion at the November 17th meeting and no action was taken at that time.
Zack also presented data on traffic stops in the city. He said traffic stops have declined significantly since 2019 – dropping from 11,632 in 2019 to just 3,183 for 2021.
He said almost 50% of the time, only a warning is issued and less than 5% of traffic stops result in an arrest.
The committee also heard from Asheville Police Department’s financial business manager, Elise Lewis, about the department reapplying for three grants.
Those grants support the department’s motorcycle safety program, officer overtime pay and the purchasing of bulletproof vests.
The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant requires that funds be matched by the City. According to Lewis’ presentation, the Department of Justice has preliminarily determined that the Asheville Police Department is eligible to receive a 2021 award of $30,870, which requires a dollar-for-dollar match by the City.
Lewis said the funding will allow the purchase of 84 bulletproof vests over the 2-year life of the grant. According to the presentation slideshow, the City of Asheville’s match is $30,870 and is already included in the adopted APD Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget.
The public safety committee approved to move all three grants forward to full city council for approval.
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