Over the last five years, police in the U.S. killed more than 400 people during traffic stops who were not armed or being pursued for a violent crime, according to a new report
A Missouri Highway Patrol trooper conducts a traffic stop along Interstate 70 in St. Louis in 2017. Photo: Whitney Curtis/The Washington Post via Getty Images A New York Times investigation published Sunday offers a wide-ranging look at how routine traffic stops by police for minor violations — frequently driven by the demand for ticket revenue — often escalate into fatal encounters for U.S. motorists and passengers.
Thanks to police culture and training, many officers have been conditioned to believe — wrongly — that traffic stops are high-risk, the report explains. The high-risk mindset leads to overreaction and hyper-violence against people who are not a threat. “All [officers have] heard are horror stories about what could happen,” Sarah Mooney, assistant police chief in West Palm Beach, told the Times. “It is very difficult to try to train that out of somebody.
The investigation also highlights how police departments’ efforts to conduct traffic stops and write tickets serves the purpose of raising revenue: