Good Traffic Enforcement and Crime Reduction
Letter to the Detroit News
Sent on March 3, 2010

I commend and support Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans for recognizing that aggressive traffic enforcement, including equipment violations, is a proven approach to combat crime.

For example, the Manual of Police Traffic Services of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, of which I am a life member, clearly supports the Chief's use of proactive traffic enforcement to detect criminals and contraband, including illegal weapons. The manual, in part, says:
"Today, police departments have become increasingly aware that alert and proactive traffic law enforcement is also an excellent tool to detect and apprehend those who have committed criminal acts, as well as to deter crimes before they happen, by “looking beyond the license plate” in every traffic stop."

Criminals usually drive to and from crime locations. They carry weapons, contraband, and often the evidence of their criminal acts. There's a reason the media reports on "drive-by shootings" but rarely "walk-by shootings."

I find Ron Scott's (the director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality) supposed concern about officer quotas for traffic stops laughable. The Chief has the right and responsibility to require his officers to be productive, to account for their time, and to administer discipline if they aren't productive. Even more laughable, Scott says that the Chief's approach may lead "...to racial profiling of young African-American men who happen to be driving in a high crime area..." Take a look at the demographics of the perpetrators of crime in Detroit, Mr. Scott. It's not the gray-haired church ladies who are committing armed robberies behind the liquor store.

Thomas E. Page
Brush Park, Detroit
Retired, Los Angeles Police Department