Minnesota County District Attorney to Stop Prosecuting Non-Public Roadside Checks in Honor of Philando Castile

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According to Ramsey County District Attorney John Choi, these types of stops – known as non-public safety stops – have a habit of leading to deadly interactions with police, especially in black communities.

“I am not going to continue to perpetuate these unfair practices, these police practices, which are having really hard results for our community,” Choi told CNN Thursday. “We really need to start thinking about the real negative impact this has on police-community relations and the glaring racial disparity is telling when looking at the numbers.”

The new policy comes five years after former St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez shot dead Castile seven times during a traffic stop. The incident was recorded live on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, as her 4-year-old daughter sat in the backseat.

The shooting, along with other high-profile shootings of blacks, sparked protests and renewed conversations about the police, fairness and racist roots of the country, topics that remain relevant today and have led to institutional changes in the United States.

Yanez arrested Castile on July 6, 2016 because of a broken tail light, prosecutors said. Yanez was acquitted of second degree manslaughter and other counts in 2017.

Choi was the prosecutor who indicted Yanez because Castile complied with the officer’s orders and posed no imminent threat.

Choi compared police who stop motorists for minor traffic violations to stop and search, where police stop, question and search people they consider suspicious. The practice was declared unconstitutional in 2013 by a New York federal judge.

The new policy is in partnership with five of the region’s police departments as part of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Motion for Justice initiative, according to a press release from the national nonprofit research and policy organization. .

“These non-public security checks, which are often referred to as pretext checks, occur when a person is detained for a minor offense while the police are looking for evidence of a more serious crime,” the Vera Institute of Justice said. . “Research shows that racial and ethnic bias play a role in police decisions to carry out this type of traffic stop.”

A May 2020 New York University study looked at 100 million traffic stops in the United States and found that black drivers were 20% more likely to be stopped than white drivers. Once arrested, black drivers were searched up to twice as often as white drivers, “while they were less likely to carry drugs, guns or other contraband compared to their own. white peers, ”according to the study.

In Ramsey County, Choi said black people are arrested by police for traffic violations four times as many as others. Ramsey County has a population of over 550,000, of which 61.1% are white, 12.9% are black, 15.3% are Asian and 7.5% are Hispanic / Latinx, according to the US Census Bureau. .

Saint Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell said in a statement that he and Choi had had many conversations about traffic stops and “what is in the best interest of our community.”

“Our data shows that most traffic stops occur in areas of the city with higher crime levels, which are also home to our most diverse populations and many people living below the poverty line,” the statement said. from Axtell. “The last thing we want to do is add undue hardship to people who are struggling to make ends meet.”

CNN’s Ralph Ellis and Bill Kirkos contributed to this report.

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