Story by: Kendall Kylls
As calls from across the nation grow for government officials to defund the police and reallocate that money to more helpful services like job training, counseling, and violence-prevention programs, the Atlanta Police Department has decided to start pulling more people over.
A new eight-officer unit called the Tactical Traffic Crime Reduction Unit (TTCRU) has been formed, and between Jan. 1 and mid-February they've already made 2,300 traffic stops, issued 1,100 citations and made 23 gun-related arrests.
The TTCRU operates in downtown and Midtown. They say their goal is to reduce thefts from cars in the area by making more frequent traffic stops. Their Lieutenant, Jeff Childers, claims that even when stops don't result in charges or arrests, the increased activity is reducing car break-ins.
"You can see from the numbers, but we don't write a ticket for every stop," Childers told the AJC. "We've seen where auto theft, the break-ins, the entering auto cases — they're moving. They're diminishing in the areas where we're putting our efforts. We're really trying to occupy these spaces where the crime has an uptick."
Studies have shown that increased traffic stops have no discernible effect on serious crime rates, and only infrequently result in the recovery of contraband. Out of those 2,300 traffic stops, I'd love to see how many of those drivers were Black, #DrivingWhileBlack. And out of those 23 arrests (which is just 1% of the total stops), did any of them have a history of theft from cars?
So APD, are you really reducing car break-ins, or are you just pulling more people over to make your ticket quotas?
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