A brief look at Philadelphia’s new “Driving Equity Act”

Police Reform

A brief look at Philadelphia’s new “Driving Equity Act”

“The Driving Equality Act, effective since March 2022, reclassifies 8 vehicle violations as secondary violations, meaning they shouldn’t be the primary reason [emphasis my own] that an officer pulls over a driver.”

…

8 Violations:

Late registration (if under 60 days late)

Relocation of temporary registration (must be visible)

Hanging license plate (must be fastened)

Missing a single headlight or taillight

Items hanging from a rearview mirror

Minor bumper damage

Driving with an expired or missing inspection sticker

Driving with an expired or missing registration sticker

…

Two things.

1.       I learned, but only recently, that having something (literally anything) dangling from your rearview mirror is a reason police can pull you over. This is obviously bullshit.

2.       “Minor bumper damage” is a new one to me. “Minor” implies that the bumper should still protect you and others in the event of an accident. This suggests the damage is cosmetic and the vehicle may even still pass inspection (PA is strict). Most notably, it seems to me, is that this is clearly a class issue as well as a race issue. It’s absurdly expensive to make even small vehicle repairs if insurance does not cover the cost. In Philadelphia, your car is almost certainly going to get damaged at some point for no fault of your own. I lost several side mirrors while living in Philly and the front of my current car has cosmetic damage around the driver’s side headlight from when someone (almost certainly drunkenly) hit every car on the street (mere days before I moved, adding to the frustration). This isn’t the first time this has happened to me… suggesting that statistically this is not remotely uncommon. People do not leave notes when they drunkenly sideswipe cars (especially an entire streets worth of them).

The above is, in part, a reflection on what we already know, which is that this is just scratching the surface of police changes that need to be made so as to avoid potentially violent altercations. Police brutality is not going to just go away. It’s a systemic issue.

Yes, we need more community policing.

No, that does not solve the problem of who wants to be an armed beat cop in the first place.

You went to school with these kids. Some of them have an axe to grind.

Are we going to abolish the police? Not any time soon.

Let’s remember that “defund” is a term (that has become loaded) that is strictly a call to reallocate funds away from certain areas of law enforcement spending including militarization.

If you have not watched the Last Week Tonight episode on Civil Forfeiture now is as good a time as any.

And now this… (oh wait, this isn’t actually a Last Week Tonight episode…)