Minnesota County Attorney to Stop Processing Non-Public Safety Traffic Stops in Honor of Philando Castilla

Such stops (known as non-public safety stops) have a history of leading to deadly interactions with police, especially in black communities, according to Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.

“I will not continue to perpetuate these unfair practices, these police practices, which have really tough results for our community,” Choi told CNN on Thursday. “We really need to start thinking about the real negative impact this has on police and community relations and the direct racial disparity is revealing looking at the numbers.”

The new policy comes five years after former San Antonio police department officer Jeronimo Yanez shot Castile seven times during a traffic stop. The incident was recorded live on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, while her 4-year-old daughter was sitting in the back seat.

The shooting, along with other high-profile black shootings, sparked protests and renewed talks about policing, equity and racist roots in the country, issues that remain relevant today and have led to some institutional changes in the US.

Yanez withdrew from Castile on July 6, 2016 due to a broken tail lamp, prosecutors said. Yanez was acquitted of second-degree murder and other charges in 2017.

Choi was the prosecutor who filed charges against Yanez because Castile complied with the officer’s orders and posed no imminent threat.

Choi compared police who stopped motorists for minor traffic violations to those who stopped or braked, where police stop, question, and counter people they considered suspicious. The practice was declared unconstitutional in 2013 by a federal judge in New York.

The new policy is in collaboration with five of the area’s police departments as part of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Motion for Justice initiative, according to a press release from the national research and policy organization without profit.

“These non-public security stops, which are often known as pretextual stops, occur when a person is arrested for a minor offense while police look for evidence of a more serious crime,” the Vera Institute of Justice said. “Research shows that ethnic and racial bias plays a role in police decisions to stop this type of traffic.”

A May 2020 study from New York University examined 100 million traffic stops in the United States and found that black drivers were 20% more likely to be stopped than white drivers. Once arrested, black drivers were searched up to twice as many times as white drivers, “while they were less likely to carry drugs, weapons or other illegal smuggling compared to their white companions,” he said. ‘study.

In Ramsey County, Choi said police are arresting blacks for a traffic offense four times more than others. Ramsey County has more than 550,000 residents, of whom 61.1% are white, 12.9% are black, 15.3% are Asian and 7.5% are Hispanic / Latino, according to the Office. of the United States Census.

Todd Axtell, Saint Paul’s police chief, said in a statement that he and Choi have had many conversations about traffic stops and “what is in the best interest of our community.”

“Our data show that most traffic stops occur in areas of the city that experience higher levels of crime, which are also home to our most diverse populations and many people living below the level of poverty, ”Astell’s statement said. “The last thing we want to do is add undue hardship to people struggling to reach two.”

CNN’s Ralph Ellis and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

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