SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office this week filed an amicus brief supporting the City of San Francisco’s fight against a lawsuit by the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA), which seeks to overturn the city’s policy limiting racially biased traffic stops, also known as pretext stops.
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office’s Brian Cox, manager of the Integrity Unit at the Public Defender’s Office, said, “Racially-biased traffic stops disproportionately harm Black and brown communities, and are out of step with San Francisco’s values of racial equality and fairness,”
Moreover, the SF Public Defender’s Office said Cox noted San Francisco joined several other U.S. cities to enact a policy limiting the use of pretext stops.
However, Cox added, “the Police Commission had the authority to do so (limit the use of pretext stops) under the City Charter. The POA had ample time to voice its opinion, and now is desperately trying to keep in place a police practice that is ineffective and harmful.”
According to the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, the San Francisco Police Commission voted in February 2024 to implement the pretext stop restrictions, which prohibit officers from using minor traffic infractions as a pretext to stop and search drivers, after data indicated Black drivers are disproportionately targeted in such (pretext) stops.
The SF Public Defender’s Office explained, “Police officers often use pretext stops to fish for evidence of wrongdoing that has nothing to do with the traffic infraction.”
The defenders’ brief stated, “Pretextual stops don’t just traumatize and harass Black people; they’re also a particularly ineffective police practice.”
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office quoted elected Public Defender Mano Raju, who added pretextual stops caused “economic, physical, and psychological damage to communities of color here in San Francisco and across the country.”
The SF Public Defender’s Office cited a report from the San Francisco Police Department that stated, “Black people are stopped at nearly seven times the rate as white people, searched at almost 11 times more and subjected to use of force at more than 12 times the rate.”
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office argued, “The evidence shows they (pretext stops) are a waste of public tax resources and officers’ time and are akin to a ‘needle in a haystack’ strategy.”
Raju stressed, “The harm caused by racially-biased traffic stops—aka ‘driving while Black’—is beyond dispute…I am proud that San Francisco is ending this detrimental practice.”
