Yesterday the Connecticut State Senate voted with bipartisan support to pass Senate Bill 1195, also known as the Driving Equity bill, that would end traffic stops for certain low-level infractions. Next, the bill will go to the state House of Representatives for passage. This measure would put Connecticut in line with jurisdictions across the country including Virginia, Oregon, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Memphis that have stopped unnecessary stops.
“Across the country minor traffic stops have turned deadly for Black and Brown people, from Tyre Nichols in Memphis to Anthony Vega Cruz in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Thank you to Senate Judiciary Chair Winfield and ranking member Kissel for supporting Senate Bill 1195, which will address racial equity for drivers. We urge the state House of Representatives to now vote on the bill,” said Michelle Feldman, the Director of Partnerships at Center for Policing Equity (CPE), which advocated for the bill.
“Today’s passage of S.B. 1195 by the State Senate will help to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in traffic enforcement while improving the safety of our roadways. This bill will help law enforcement allocate their limited resources by clarifying decades old traffic laws and help police administrators to focus time and effort on those violations that are causing a record increase in deaths on our roads,” said Ken Barone, Associate Director of the
Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at the University of Connecticut.
The bill would make roughly eight categories of minor traffic violations into secondary offenses, meaning they could not be the sole basis of a traffic stop. These infractions include tinted windows, improper license plate display, minor obstruction of a windshield, a single broken headlight, a broken mirror, and defective horns. In addition, it would extend the grace period for failure to renew licenses and registration, and clean up other parts of the motor vehicle code.
Senate Bill 1195 reflects the recommendations of the state’s Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force issued in 2021. The Task Force, which included four police chiefs and other police professionals, evaluated the motor vehicle code and identified violations that disproportionately contribute to Connecticut’s racial and ethnic disparity while having little to no impact on crashes.
In Connecticut, Black drivers are almost twice as likely and Hispanic drivers are 1.5 times more likely to be stopped for an equipment-related violation, such as a broken tail light, compared to White drivers, according to the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board. Similarly, Black drivers are 1.2 times and Hispanic drivers are 1.3 times more likely to be stopped for an administrative offense, such as an expired registration, compared to White drivers.