They're called pretext traffic stops.
If police see a minor violation on a vehicle, like a broken tail light or tinted windows, but have suspicions that a driver is engaged in criminal activity, officers can pull them over and investigate.
Police consider these stops crucial for effective crime fighting. But research has shown that they disproportionately target Black and Latino communities.
In August the San Diego Commission on Police Practices, the city's citizen oversight board, recommended that the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) change how officers conduct these stops.
They suggested not stopping people for administrative violations, avoiding general assumptions when determining whether to pull someone over and not investigating further when there is only evidence of a minor violation.
CPP Executive Director Roger Smith said these traffic stops are inherently misleading and, in California, only lead to arrests or evidence recovery in less than 5% percent of cases.
“They're done under false pretenses, they are pretending that the purpose is one thing and the real purpose is another,” Smith said. “The public has to deal with this deception from the department on a daily basis and this deception is not necessary.”
Smith also took issue with the department’s practice of entering the field interviews with the people they pull over into the CalGang database, which departments across the state use as a clearinghouse for suspected gang activity.
This week, SDPD officials largely rejected the CPP’s recommendations, saying in a response letter that these restrictions could limit their ability to effectively address crime.
“The violations identified by the Commission are often associated with pretextual stops, but that does not mean every stop for these violations is pretextual,” the letter said. “These vehicle codes serve independent safety purposes, and a categorical prohibition would prevent officers from addressing the underlying violation, regardless of the reason for the stop.”
SDPD spokesperson Ashley Nicholes declined KPBS’s request for an interview.
Police are legally allowed to conduct these traffic stops and can investigate further if they have reasonable suspicion. According to their letter, “department procedures already require officers to have a lawful basis for a detention and limit its scope and duration.”
Locally, people in Southeast San Diego and people of color are among the most likely to be stopped by SDPD, according to civil rights attorney and Pillars of the Community Legal Director Mitchelle Woodson.
While people of color are more likely to be pulled over, Woodson said they are actually less likely to be arrested after a traffic stop than white people.
“If you talk to black and brown residents that have these kinds of interactions, they don't feel safe around the police,” Woodson said. “It's such a waste of taxpayer dollars and such a waste of police time.”
Woodson said during these stops people often don’t realize they aren’t legally required to allow a search of their vehicle.
“Having a broken tail light is not probable cause for another kind of crime,” Woodson said. “Oftentimes people feel, especially communities that are overpoliced and overcriminalized, feel that we don't have these rights or that we're not knowledgeable of how to protect those rights.”
In their response letter, SDPD said they have trainings in place that already address some of CPP’s central concerns, including racial profiling and implicit biases. According to the letter, officers receive 4 hours of racial profiling training during their time in the regional police academy, and an additional two hours of training every two years.
This isn’t enough for Woodson.
“The issue isn't just in training,” she said. “It's that there is a culture of bias and racism that's embedded in the way that police, both in San Diego and in the nation, utilize their practices.”
CPP’s recommendations came after two years of internal discussions and community meetings.
And Smith said the conversation won’t end here.
“They have a practice that they know is affecting different segments of the community differently for no good reason, for no necessary reason, but they're determined to continue with it,” he said. “That must stop.”
