NJ Police Should Focus On Dangerous Driving – Not Minor Infractions, Advocates Say

Police should be should be spending their valuable time stopping speeders and drunk drivers – not writing up broken taillights, advocates in New Jersey say.

Earlier this week, the ACLU of New Jersey released a report that calls for police to refocus their efforts on addressing “dangerous driving” instead of enforcing minor technical infractions like expired inspections and cracked windshields.

Read the full report and see its methodology here.

Each fatal crash in New Jersey is a tragic loss of life that should be addressed by building safer roadways and rooting out dangerous driving, the ACLU-NJ said.

However, minor traffic code infractions play a “statistically insignificant” role in fatal crashes, advocates added.

Out of the 11,750 vehicles involved in fatal crashes in New Jersey from 2010 to 2023, only 45 of those vehicles had issues with lights, windows, mirrors or windshields – or about 0.38 percent, the ACLU-NJ reported.

What causes most deaths on the road? Unsafe behaviors like speeding, alcohol consumption, driver inattention, and failure to obey traffic signals and stop signs, data shows. From 2010 to 2023 in New Jersey, 22.8 percent of fatal crashes involved speeding, and 23.3 percent involved a distracted driver.

Ironically, New Jersey’s traffic code is so broad that many drivers are likely to break the law any time they get behind the wheel, advocates said.

For example, if a car has an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, an officer can – and is technically mandated to – pull the driver over for an obstructed windshield, the ACLU-NJ said.

CIVIL LIBERTIES AND RACIAL DISPARITIES

According to the ACLU-NJ, there’s another reason to cut down on low-risk traffic stops: civil rights.

The nonprofit alleged that officers can use infractions like broken taillights to justify “pretextual stops” in the hopes of finding more serious offenses. This can lead to high-stress confrontations over trivial violations – while threatening constitutional protections from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Meanwhile, serious racial disparities continue to exist in the Garden State, advocates said:

“Past research has shown that traffic stops in New Jersey disproportionately target and harm drivers who are Black. New analysis of more than six million traffic stops in New Jersey between January 2009 and May 2021 has found that Black people accounted for 18.8% of all drivers pulled over, despite comprising 8.2% of New Jersey drivers. Additionally, Black drivers accounted for 36.5% of all searches. ACLU-NJ analysis of data for non-safety violations showed further evidence of racial disparities. For example, among non-safety traffic stops for technical infractions related to windshield obstruction and window tinting, Black people accounted for 28.1% of stops and 49.3% of searches.”

Hispanic drivers have also historically experienced more pretextual traffic stops and searches than White drivers, the nonprofit said.

“In a constitutional democracy, law enforcement should not be able to conduct arbitrary stops,” said Emily Reina Dindial, senior policy counsel with the ACLU’s Justice Division.

“Right now, it is too easy for police to stop cars in New Jersey and circumvent constitutional protections by using minor, non-safety offenses as justification for a stop with an ulterior motive,” Dindial said.

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WHAT CAN BE DONE?

The ACLU-NJ included a series of recommendations in their report.

One big suggestion? Change the law, the nonprofit said:

“The ACLU of New Jersey recommends that legislators amend the traffic code to clarify that law enforcement can stop a vehicle for certain non-safety traffic violations only if the violation presents an immediate threat to road safety, meaning that the violation is considered so severe that at least one person’s physical safety is at imminent risk of harm or the vehicle is at imminent risk of collision. Legislators should also specify concrete situations in which that threshold is and is not met. For example, legislators should amend the statute on windshields to clarify that an officer could no longer pull someone over for an air freshener, or another object of similar size and placement. But an officer could still stop someone if an obstructed windshield prevented a driver from safely operating their vehicle. Other violations to address include light violations, window tinting, and windshield issues like cracks.”

For administrative violations – such as expired inspection and expired registration – legislators should implement a 90-day grace period during which law enforcement cannot stop drivers, the ACLU-NJ said.

Legislators should also consider repealing certain non-safety traffic violations, including defective horn, noisy muffler, and missing a front license plate, given that a license plate is fixed on the rear of the vehicle.

For failure to signal, the ACLU-NJ recommended that legislators clarify when a lack of signaling does not amount to a violation.

DOES IT WORK?

According to the ACLU-NJ, reducing “non-safety” traffic stops has worked in other areas of the country. The nonprofit offered the following examples:

• North Carolina – When Fayetteville, NC, decreased non-safety stops and prioritized stops for dangerous driving, public safety improved. One study estimated that this reform – in combination with other reforms – led to 765 fewer crashes and 19 fewer fatalities annually. Fayetteville’s reform also decreased assaults on officers.
• Connecticut – When Newington, CT, implemented traffic stop reform that prioritized identifying intoxicated drivers, they achieved a 250% increase in DUI arrests. Racial disparities also declined.
• Philadelphia – After Philadelphia implemented non-safety traffic stop reform, there was a 35.6% increase in traffic stops for running a red light or stop sign. Additionally, compared to the year before the reform, officers recovered more guns from fewer traffic stops.
• Los Angeles – In Los Angeles, in the year after traffic stop reform, the Los Angeles Department Police Chief Dominic Choi reported, “We had one of the highest years in number of guns that were recovered and arrested.”

“New Jersey should leverage every tool at its disposal to protect its communities, and that includes promoting public safety by addressing dangerous driving,” said Lauren Aung, a policy fellow at the ACLU of New Jersey.

“Research has shown that if lawmakers modernize the traffic code and focus law enforcement resources on preventing accidents, lives are saved and racial disparities in traffic stop enforcement improve – we're calling on the Legislature to make that reality,” Aung said.

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