In efforts to eliminate fatal and severe traffic collisions by 2028, the Berkeley Police Department implemented a three-prong approach known as Vision Zero, focusing on typical causes of collisions and concerns about driving conditions.
Berkeley’s Healthy Streets program, which promotes safer walking and cycling by limiting car traffic and driving speed on select roads, will end this month.
In July 2020, as part of the reimagining public safety omnibus, Berkeley City Council referred to the city manager the creation of a new Berkeley Department of Transportation (BerkDOT), in part to eliminate or reduce pretextual traffic stops. Their referral suggests combining within BerkDOT transportation planning and engineering, as well as unarmed, non-police equitable traffic enforcement. As a coalition of community members with expertise spanning transportation, criminology, public policy, urban design, public health, and law, we hope to use this two-part op-ed to contextualize this effort. The first part, presented below, provides context and data behind the issue. Part 2 will outline potential solutions and our vision for BerkDOT’s role in those solutions.
Berkeley votes to limit low-level traffic stops to reduce policing disparities
Officers will focus on investigative stops and pulling over dangerous drivers rather than “random observations of minor equipment violations,” Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said.
Berkeley police will focus on safety- and investigation-related traffic stops while limiting stops for “low-level” offenses. Photo: Jerome Paulos
Officials voted unanimously Tuesday night to deprioritize traffic stops in Berkeley for “low-level” offenses, such as not wearing a seat belt or having expired registration tags, and focus police efforts instead on driving violations related to traffic safety.
The decision was part of a package of police reform efforts approved Tuesday night to address racial disparities in policing that have been documented in Berkeley and around the nation. A working group convened by Mayor Jesse Arreguín, composed of academics, activists, police and city officials, came up with the re