#PHILADELPHIA TRAFFIC CITATION DRIVERS#

“It seems like this police tactic is not effective for bringing about public safety. Officers found contraband, such as illegal drugs or guns, in the vehicle less than 1% of the time.

#PHILADELPHIA TRAFFIC CITATION DRIVERS#

Thomas said officers pull him over less often these days, but it does still happen, including after the 2019 Democratic primary, the race that effectively landed him a seat on City Council.īlack drivers accounted for 72% of all motor vehicle stops during the same period. “He would have arrested me if another emergency didn’t take place,” Thomas said. Thomas said the officer searched his car, then put him in the back seat of his police cruiser, but a more pressing police call appears to have spared Thomas a night in jail. “Once he pulled me over, his reason for me having to get out of the car and him searching my car was because I looked nervous.” “There was no traffic violation at all,” said Thomas. It was after midnight and he was with a friend. In 2008, shortly after graduating college, Thomas said police officer pulled him over three blocks from his house in the Oak Lane section of the city. “Definitely more than 10, but less than 30,” said Thomas, who is Black. During that span, he said he’s been pulled over by police more times than he can count, mostly when he was younger.

The 36-year-old has been a driver in Philadelphia for nearly two decades. I’m hoping we can move to a space and place where it’s not a guaranteed experience for young Black men growing up in the city of Philadelphia.” “It’s something that we include in our everyday life and everyday thinking. “It’s something that we’ve become immune to,” he said. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsorĬouncilmember Isaiah Thomas, who is expected to introduce the bill on Thursday, said racial profiling should not be routine in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia traffic citation