Video of NFL player Tyreek Hill being arrested by Miami-Dade police earlier this week brought attention to the sometimes contentious and sensitive nature of a routine traffic stop, which is an everyday function of law enforcement.
Many traffic stops end without incident. But because so many occur, they have been the site of a number of high-profile confrontations between officers and drivers in recent times.
Hill was released and then took part in the season opener for the Miami Dolphins; police say he was issued citations for reckless driving and failure to wear a seatbelt. Last spring, after a fatal accident, police controlling traffic outside the PGA Championship detained world No. 1 player Scottie Scheffler following a similar incident. Scheffler was indicted on charges of dragging an officer; those charges were later dropped.
Other stops have resulted in even greater tragedies, particularly for Black drivers.
For example, one 2019 study estimated that Black drivers were 20% more likely than White drivers to be stopped out of around 100 million stops nationwide. Additionally, a report published this month by the California Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board indicated that although only 5.4 percent of the state’s population is Black, 12.5 percent of the state’s traffic stops in 2022 were of drivers that police believed were Black.
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That many high-profile Black deaths in recent years started with a traffic stop feeds into the imbalance; Hill, in an interview with CNN on Monday, seemed to hint toward that notion when he spoke about how things might have gone differently had he not been well-known.
That’s real, Hill said. Worst-case scenario-we would’ve had a whole different article if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill. Worst case, Tyreek Hill gets shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium.
But because often they don’t know who’s inside the car, and because they’re pulling it over with traffic zooming by, police stops can also be hazardous to them.
“It’s something you have to take into consideration when you make a stop,” said Charles Ramsey, the former police commissioner in Philadelphia and one-time chief of the Washington, DC, police. “You don’t know the individual; you don’t know what they may have done prior to you stopping them. So, you’re going to be cautious.”
A Threat to Both Drivers and Law Enforcement
It was in 2017 when a former Minnesota police officer was acquitted after the shooting of Philando Castile, who he said at the time appeared to be reaching for a gun inside the car instead of his wallet or identification card. Then in 2021, Daunte Wright became the latest target of a Minnesota police officer right after he pulled away from a traffic stop prompted by an expired tag and an unlawful air freshener. Police later discovered that Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant at the time. Meanwhile, the 2023 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols—who also just happened to be pulled over for a traffic stop—went to trial this week for three former Memphis, Tennessee, police officers.
Not just the occupants of the car are in danger, however.
Dash cam footage of a traffic stop back in February took the life of one Tennessee deputy and injured another, as the car appeared to repeatedly cross over the center line.
In 2017, a Minnesota police officer fatally shot Philando Castile, later saying he thought Castile was reaching for a gun rather than his wallet or identification from inside the car. In 2021, Daunte Wright also died at the hand of a Minnesota police officer after he pulled away from a traffic stop inspired by an expired tag and an illegal air freshener. The police discovered that Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant at the time. In addition, the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in 2023-which also just happened to occur after a traffic stop-went to trial this week for three former Memphis, Tennessee, police officers.
Still, not only the occupants of the car are in danger.
Dashcam video of a traffic stop back in February took the life of one Tennessee deputy and injured another, as the vehicle appeared to repeatedly cross the center line.
It is not out of the ordinary for police officers to be shot and killed during stops or gravely injured responding to calls of domestic abuse. “They’re both considered statistically a high-risk category in what we do,” Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, told CNN in 2022, during one week when several police officers were gravely injured in traffic stops.
De-escalation is key’
The initial reason for the traffic stop is often what sets the tone for the remainder of the incident, according to Ramsey. Was it simply a traffic violation or a suspicion that the car was involved in another type of crime that prompted the stop.
“In terms of where the officers stand, how they approach their driver, getting any passengers out of the car, that sort of thing, the approach in a situation like that would be entirely different than what it should be in a typical stop,” he said.
However, the former police chief said that “de-escalation is key” when emotions do build and that an officer’s first course of action is to explain to the motorist why they’ve been stopped.
“And if a person seems a little agitated, you do what you can in terms of your verbal communication to try to settle them down a little bit.” He added that an officer should also speak in a calm voice.
As for drivers, Ramsey advised staying in the vehicle, just as he had already told his son when he got his license. Keep your hands visible. If the police ask for license and registration, roll down your window and comply.
“Most of the time, things are cooling off pretty fast,” he said. “You can always object to the violation if you feel you did not commit it in a later court of law.”
Equally, the American Civil Liberties Union implores drivers to keep cool and respects their right to silence, since “police officers bear the brunt of de-escalation, not private citizens.”
The ACLU writes, “You may be able to reduce risk to yourself by remaining composed and not acting hostilely toward the officers.” “The truth is that there have been cases where individuals have taken every precaution to ensure the safety of an officer and yet they have been harmed or killed.”
