Memphis leaders pass measure that ends police stops for minor infractions, three months after Tyre Nichols’ death
By Nick Valencia, CNN
The Memphis City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that puts an end to pretextual police stops.
The “Driving Equality Act in Honor of Tyre Nichols,” named after the 29-year-old Black man who was beaten to death by Memphis officers during a traffic stop, was passed unanimously and will become the practice on Memphis streets.
Pretext stops allow police to use minor traffic infractions or broken taillights as grounds to investigate motorists for more serious crimes. Police have defended those kinds of stops, saying they are crucial for fighting possession of illegal drugs, weapons possession, human trafficking and drunken driving.
But civil rights groups say the tactic unfairly targets Black drivers.
The measure passed in Memphis will still allow police to make traffic stops for primary violations — like aggressive driving — but pulling someone over for secondary violations or minor infractions — like a loose bumper or a broken taillight — will no longer be allowed.
The end of these kinds of stops has been on the list of police reforms that activists had called for since Nichols’ death.
Nichols was brutally beaten by city officers on the night of January 7. He required hospitalization after the encounter and died on January 10.
‘This is a start for getting justice’
Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas, the sponsor of the ordinance, told CNN affiliate WMC the measure will allow authorities to focus their resources on where they are needed.
“What this ordinance is not saying, is do not go to those aggressive drivers,” Easter-Thomas told the affiliate. “It’s not saying we’re not looking for counterfeit tags. It’s diverting our resources to where we need the most, which is for (the Memphis Police Department) to fight crime for us and for them to be in their communities being supportive and engaging so that we can build our positive decorum between our officers and our community members.”
“We are so pleased,” Rev. Ayanna Watkins, Executive Director of Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope told CNN by phone. “This is a start for getting justice for Tyre and all of those unnamed who died in a similar way.”
“It’s also a way of being heard,” Watkins added. “Our elected officials are there to hear the people and serve the people.”
Residents voiced concern about ‘pretext stops’
A month before Nichols’ death, activists and organizers gave a presentation at the city council’s public safety committee hearing to highlight their concerns about violent pretextual traffic stops in Memphis they said led to the death or injury of five people since 2013, video from the committee hearing showed.
Activists with Decarcerate Memphis made their presentation on December 6, almost exactly one month to the day before Nichols was brutally beaten by members of the now-disbanded SCORPION unit.
There was no specific reference to the SCORPION unit during the presentation, a CNN review found.
Another measure was tabled
Another public safety ordinance was tabled on Tuesday over concerns about community input.
“It practically cut and pasted policies out of the police and policy handbook,” Watkins said about the tabled ordinance. “It would have taken the teeth out of the previous ordinances that were passed like the data transparency ordinance.”
The data transparency ordinance, part of a handful of police reforms passed after Nichols’ death, allows the public to see who was pulled over, when they were stopped and for what and what the outcomes were, Watkins said. Regular reporting will require “data regarding traffic stops, arrests, use of force, and complaints,” according to the ordinance.
In March, the city council passed five public safety ordinances, including requiring an independent review of the department’s police academy and barring the use of unmarked vehicles during traffic stops.
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