Tyre Nichols’ murder began with a pretextual traffic stop. This practice disproportionately harms Black people, and it must end

Like many people around the world, we at BikePGH were sickened and outraged at the killing of Tyre Nichols at the hands of the Memphis Police. The interaction started with a pretextual traffic stop and ended with the life of a 29-year old father, son, artist, and skater being violently taken from him as he was “just trying to get home.”

Data collected by the non-profit research group, Mapping Police Violence, shows that traffic stops, including minor infractions, disproportionately harm people of color. This is not only the case on a national level, but also reflected here in Pittsburgh, according to police data. 

As we face this critical moment in the struggle for transportation safety and racial equity, we must fight for fundamental change to this broken system. In an effort to use our voice to combat just one part of this injustice, Bike Pittsburgh has signed onto a letter with nearly 90 other organizations nationwide calling on USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg & Attorney General Merrick Garland to end the USDOT and DOJ support of pretextual traffic stops. 

“In this moment of crisis and national experimentation, the DOT and DOJ continue to implement programs—ones that long predate this Administration—that undermine both public safety and racial equity by supporting pretextual policing.” – Coalition Letter on Pretextual Stops 

When we talk about pretextual traffic stops, it means that the stop is merely a pretext, a subjective justification, for the officer’s true reason for the stop. Data shows a racial disparity in which people of color are disproportionately targeted by pretextual stops, leading to more frequent interactions with police. This is why in 2021, Pittsburgh City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits Pittsburgh police officers from pulling over a motorist for minor infractions, but which is now being challenged. Here’s more on why Pittsburgh police are again enforcing minor traffic stops on WESA’s The Confluence.

We’re at a point where people of color fear for their lives over a traffic stop, and this fear is in no way unfounded. US police killed nearly 600 people in traffic stops from 2017-2022. These disturbing accounts of fatal police brutality over minor infractions, circumstantial evidence, or a “hunch” that a driver looks “suspicious,” have caused a growing push to remove armed police officers from traffic enforcement. 

Over years of doing this work, we’ve learned that armed enforcement is not an effective strategy to improve roadway safety, especially when people of color are disproportionately the targets of the police. We cannot turn a blind eye to injustice, nor can we, in good conscience, promote police enforcement as a solution to street safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. Street safety means more than just preventing traffic crashes – it also means safety for all residents who are “just trying to get home” without fearing that the color of their skin determines whether they arrive safely or not.