from the who-needs-human-rights-when-you-have-pretext dept
The brightest light in Flyover Country, USA underwent the growing pains of a coastal megatropolis following Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd — something that began as a response to allegedly fake $20 bill being passed at a local shop, but ended nine minutes later with Floyd lying dead under Chauvin’s unmoving knee, which was still pressed to his throat.
The ensuing chaos and protests made it clear police business as usual was off the table, at least until the country moved on to the next senseless killing of a citizen by a law enforcement officer. But the MPD just kept senselessly killing people, fanning the (sometimes literal) flames and putting it in the crosshairs of multiple reform efforts.
A few years later, and only a few of those Floyd-inspired reform efforts have materialized. But one of the most common instigators of random cop violence — the pretextual traffic stop — has been reined in by the city government.
Pulling people over for tiny violations in hopes of stumbling upon bigger crimes is the way cops do business, especially when asset forfeiture is in play. Cops will be the first to remind you traffic stops are incredibly dangerous, something they deliver in mantra-esque tones following traffic stops turned deadly by the people that instigated them. If traffic stops are truly that inherently dangerous, you’d think cops would focus on actually dangerous drivers/driving, rather than a failure to come to a complete stop at a quiet intersection or driving around with expired plates.
Hopefully, things will now be much safer for Minneapolis police officers, who will no longer be allowed to engage in guns-out fishing expeditions triggered by, I don’t know, window tint or something. A new settlement says cops will actually have to limit themselves to more meaningful interactions with the driving public.
Under the terms of a new settlement agreement between the city and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, MPD officers cannot pull over drivers for the sole purpose of expired tabs, license plate issues, broken lights or mirrors, or failing to signal a turn, among other issues.
There’s a big asterisk attached, however.
However, officers can still make these stops if they determine a risk to public safety.
I don’t see how any of these infractions (jointly or severally) could possibly add up to a “public safety risk,” but I’m not the guy expected to generate justifications on the fly for violating a city settlement with a state agency. That’s on the officers who will almost certainly violate this agreement immediately and perpetually.
But, if nothing else, it helps solidify changes the city and its police department agreed to in 2021. That policy change took inoperable license plate lights and items dangling from the rear view mirror out of the pretextual stop equation.
The better stuff comes later in the agreement. It goes farther than limiting pretextual stops. It’s going to have a definite impact on cops who do Toucan Sam policing, following their snoots to flavors of Fourth Amendment violations. (It doesn’t rhyme. I’m sorry.)
The new agreement also bans MPD from searching people, or their vehicle, solely based on the smell of marijuana — which will soon be legal in Minnesota anyway for adults 21 and older.
“Odor of marijuana” has always been a handy pretense for a roadside vehicular strip search. It’s also been a handy justification for any violence that might be inflicted by officers prior to, during, or following a warrantless search. That’s no longer an option, and unless these old dogs (or their old drug dogs) are willing to learn new tricks, officers are just going to have to start playing by the same set of rules the rest of us are expected to follow. You know, the law.
Filed Under: 4th amendment, human rights, minneapolis, pretextual stops, traffic stops
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