St. Paul

A Roseville police officer who spots a person driving with one burnt-out headlight or expired tabs can do something about it in 20 seconds versus a five- to 10-minute traffic stop, the police chief says.

Erika Scheider's department was the first in 2021 to officially move away from traffic stops for vehicle equipment violations, allowing officers to focus on criminal activity and moving violations that endanger public safety. Now, when a Roseville officer sees a driver with an equipment violation, they use the laptop in their squad car to quickly note it and the department mails the registered owner a letter to notify them. They’ve sent more than 1,500 letters so far this year.

The Roseville department's policy change came in August 2021, and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi made an announcement in September 2021 on a larger scale: He would no longer prosecute most felonies found during traffic stops that happened for a non-public-safety equipment violation. St. Paul, Roseville, Maplewood and St. Anthony police agreed to make changes to their traffic stop practices.

The departments continued to make traffic stops for speeding and other moving violations as usual.

An analysis of the first year of data shows the changes led to a significant decrease in stops for equipment violations and dramatically decreased the racial disparity in subsequent vehicle searches. However, Black drivers continued to be much more likely to be stopped for a moving violation and have their vehicle searched compared to drivers of other races and ethnicities.

Choi said he worked with law enforcement agencies because they wanted to make the changes to non-public-safety traffic stops.

"We wanted to say out loud that we heard the perspectives that have been for a lifetime … especially our communities of color, especially the African American community, about being subjected to these types of non-public-safety traffic stops," Choi said. Data also showed "very clearly the racial disparity" between Black and white drivers, he said.

The Justice Innovation Lab studied outcomes based on the first year of data and concluded that reducing non-public-safety traffic stops leads to more equitable traffic policing.

"Overall, the data analyses indicate that the new traffic stop policies and practices were successful in reducing minor, non-safety-related vehicle violation stops, that this reduction resulted in a narrowing of racial differences in traffic stops and searches, and that the policy had no discernible effect on crime rates," the nonprofit organization wrote in a report released Wednesday.

Crime had been the concern of people who criticized the policy change in 2021. They said Choi was decriminalizing illegal activity and cited examples of officers pulling people over for equipment violations that resulted in discovery of a serious crime.

Looking at St. Paul police information about firearms seized during traffic stops, the Justice Innovation Lab wrote that while "there appears to be a drop in traffic stop firearm seizures following change implementation, the overall numbers are very small. … On average, the SPPD seized 1.4 firearms per day overall both before and after implementation of the new traffic stop practices."

The county attorney's definition of "non-public-safety" stops are the following violations of state law:

Equipment violations "don't really relate to public safety," Choi said Wednesday. "We would like to focus on the things that really matter for our community, which is public safety … like speeding, impaired driving, reckless driving, careless driving, those are the types of traffic stops that we should be making in our community." The goal was to shift the focus from equipment violations to moving violations.

The Justice Innovation Lab found non-public-safety traffic stops by participating agencies fell 86 percent and searches by 92 percent.

While racial disparities decreased, they still persisted. Black drivers were about 2.7 times more likely than white drivers, per capita, to be pulled over both for equipment and moving violations throughout Ramsey County between September 2021 to August 2022.

The most recent numbers show that since changes to stops for equipment violations, Black drivers were 3 times less likely to be pulled over than they were in the year before the change. White drivers were 2 times less likely to be stopped than in the previous year.

"I recognize that this is only the first step," said Jared Fishman, Justice Innovation Lab founding executive director. "Disproportionalities have not ended, drivers of color are still far more likely to be stopped and searched than white drivers. We haven't solved the problem yet, but we’ve taken a vital first step. Fixing the problems that all communities face will take time."

Choi's policy change in 2021 said they wouldn't charge cases such as illegal drugs or guns that emerge from non-public-safety traffic stops. The policy says they will make "public safety exceptions … in limited circumstances."

Police departments submitted 12 cases to the Ramsey County attorney's office for charging consideration that resulted from non-public-safety traffic stops.

The county attorney's office charged three of the cases — one for fleeing police, one for fifth-degree drug possession and possession of a pistol without a permit, and one for possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. Five cases were not charged.

Two drug cases were charged by city attorney's offices, as was a case of carrying a rifle in a public place; another drug case is under review by a city attorney's office.

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association said Wednesday that their statement from 2021 hasn't changed.

"Basically, the county attorney just announced his office won't uphold the law and won't prosecute those who break it," Brian Peters, the association's executive director, said at the time. "That's absurd, and is a slap in the face to victims of crime."

St. Paul and Roseville police officers can log vehicle equipment violations from the computer in their squad car. They enter a vehicle's license plate number, then there is a drop-down menu of options to record the type of violation. The rest of the information is automatically filled in, including where the officer saw them and the registered owner's name, Chief Scheider said.

In Roseville, volunteers and summer interns have been preparing the letters for mailing; the biggest expense is postage.

Richard Johnson recently received a letter from Roseville police, informing him an officer saw him driving with a burnt-out taillight. He’d been taking a friend to work and was unaware of the problem until the letter arrived about a week later. He said he went to get it fixed right away.

"What I liked about it was they didn't stop me or tie me up or tie up the dispatchers, and I liked how they did the service of telling me," said Johnson, 58, of Eagan. "The officer kept himself to the real crime instead of the simple traffic stop."

He said he was so impressed by the idea, he called Scheider and told her he wished more departments would do the same. He also talked to Scheider about Philando Castile, whom he knew. A St. Anthony officer fatally shot Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights in 2016.

"It's sad that someone died and never could be replaced" before changes were made, Johnson said. "But what can happen is they’re trying to respond in a more positive way now."

The St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation has funded the Justice Innovation Lab's research of the changes and the alternatives to get letters to vehicle owners. Maplewood will also be receiving funding for clerical work for letters, which other participating agencies in the county will be able to use, Choi said.

Roseville's letters include information about how, though the nonprofit Lights On!, people can receive a voucher to replace a headlight, taillight, brake light, license plate light or turn signal light for free by going to the police department.

Christopher Magan contributed to this report.

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