Cardell Orrin was driving around Downtown finishing a phone call when he was stopped by an unmarked police car.

“I was just driving in circles or something like that around the block,” said Orrin, executive director of Stand For Children. “And all of a sudden, this police car — unmarked car, like SUV or something — pulls up behind. Like, ‘What are you doing?’ Driving around Downtown, like, what is that?”

Council gives final approval to five police reform ordinances despite Strickland memo

Orrin questions how traffic stops are conducted and what they achieve.

“We have to have this broader view of what we’re trying to get done and what the goal is,” he said. “And whether we’re accomplishing that goal and keeping the most people safe.”

His observation is representative of the questions officials locally and nationally are asking as they look at safer ways — ways less likely to spin out of control — of dealing with routine stops. 

It was ostensibly a traffic stop that led to the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis Police Department’s now-disbanded SCORPION unit, a special force similar to others around the country that use aggressive tactics in initiating traffic stops.

So what are some things that, while not perfect, do seem to help as officials locally and nationally seek changes in laws to de-escalate volatile situations?

SCORPION traffic stop data shines a light on the former unit

Vouchers and automation

One approach to dealing with traffic stops that has shown some success is providing vouchers to local repair shops to fix broken headlights or taillights.

Decarcerate Memphis has tried this approach in clinics it has held.

The approach is being tried elsewhere as well. Several cities — including Asheville, North Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and San Antonio, Texas — have partnered with the organization Lights On! to participate in the privately funded program to replace tickets with vouchers to make repairs that are often the violations cited by police in minor traffic stops. 

Beth Colgan, a UCLA professor of law, said that while it is constitutional for police to stop motorists for infractions such as broken lights, “that doesn’t mean that lawmakers have to make that a crime.”

Automation is also seen as a way to avoid confrontations. Some have argued for the complete automation of traffic enforcement.

Third of all SCORPION officers had infractions

And while some municipalities have tried it, it doesn’t solve all the problems.

For example, data collected by the Fines and Fees Justice Center found that several cities incorrectly ticketed drivers due to technology malfunction. Also, drivers in Black neighborhoods were receiving 17 times the average number of tickets, leading to predatory debt collections and imprisonment in some cases.

Outside of those challenges, privatization of traffic enforcement could also lead to prioritizing profit over solving traffic issues like speeding, many believe.

Colgan said the most effective way to limit drivers’ speeds is by using infrastructure that naturally reduces speeds, such as roundabouts or speed bumps.

But, she noted, “these are things that often exist in communities with greater resources.” 

File confirms identity of retired officer in Nichols case

Changing the laws

Meanwhile, locally, the city is considering a range of changes regarding traffic stops. Despite objections from Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration, Memphis City Council members passed police reform ordinances March 7 that include a ban on using unmarked cars in traffic stops.

Strickland’s office said banning use of unmarked cars is too limiting.

“To prohibit any officer in an unmarked car from conducting a traffic stop would be very detrimental,” read an unsigned memo from the mayor’s administration. “Officers should not be limited from making a traffic stop simply because they are in an unmarked car. … To outright ban an officer in an unmarked car from conducting a traffic stop would be a detriment to our community.”

However, the council approved the measure over Strickland’s objections, though council members delayed action on a proposed ordinance that would ban traffic stops for minor violations that don’t impact public safety. 

After Tyre Nichols’ death, DOJ will create nationwide guide on special police units

The council is expected to revisit that measure during its March 21 meeting.

A survey conducted by Decarcerate Memphis, and previously reported by The Daily Memphian before Nichols’ death, showed that 90% of criminal court cases stemming from pretextual traffic stops were against people of color.

“They’re disproportionately for misdemeanor charges only, and two-thirds of them wind up being dropped, which points to us a system that is putting a lot of energy and money and time into stops that don’t even go anywhere,” Adam Nelson of Decarcerate Memphis said during a December interview.

When looking at roughly 1,000 traffic stops by the SCORPION unit, about a third ultimately weren’t prosecuted. A third of those cases are still active but are being closely looked at by prosecutors.

District Attorney General Steve Mulroy’s office did not respond to requests for comment on that figure and traffic enforcement, but defense attorney Andre Wharton has represented a few defendants who were charged with various offenses by SCORPION officers.

Wharton said it’s not uncommon for up to a third of cases to be dismissed.

Bill Gibbons and Buddy Chapman discuss policing and crime on ‘Behind the Headlines’

Other places, including the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco and the state of Virginia, have also made changes in traffic laws for minor violations.

A recent bill introduced in Virginia would undo changes the state implemented, but the bill is expected to be voted down.

Those opposed to such reforms claim they have impacted the ability of police officers to do their jobs and violate state law, but Philadelphia’s changes saw a 54% drop in targeted violations during the first year. There was not, however, an impact on reducing racial disparities in stops, according to reporting from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

One of the harder things to reform without endangering others is enforcement of such offenses as speeding and drag racing. The Memphis Police Department recently unveiled a traffic unit of 10 officers to try to combat reckless driving, but records requests related to the unit have yet to be returned to The Daily Memphian.

“You find guns that you might not have known about,” said E. Winslow ‘Buddy’ Chapman, a former Memphis Police director and head of Crime Stoppers, “but you’re also going to scoop up the grandmother on her way home because she’s doing three miles an hour (over the speed limit).”