Street Safety and Police Reform Are Two Sides of the Same Coin - Streetsblog USA

"Researchers at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Policing Project at the New York University School of Law closely examined how mass car dependency amplifies harm in the criminal legal system, like rampant traffic stops that disproportionately turn deadly for people of color or traffic fines that trap low-income earners in "inescapable, inequitable cycles of indebtedness, as ticketing practices stress profits over safety.""

"The report also encouraged Vision Zero advocates to consider how an over-emphasis on enforcement-based safety strategies is hobbling their cause, by creating incentives for ineffective policing that distract and siphon resources from proven solutions that are often forgotten or ignored - like increasing mobility alternatives."

""Police reform advocates and road safety advocates should be working together, just as departments of transportation and police departments should be working together," said Scarlett Neath, senior adviser at the Policing Project and an author of the report. "Those two agencies and those two groups of advocates need to be swimming in the same direction.""

"The report authors say that, in many ways, America's car-dependent transportation system and police-focused approach to safety evolved in tandem, as "corporate interests, public investment decisions, and racial discrimination" collectively eroded public transit networks in favor of installing officers on roadsides across the nation."

Mass car dependency increases harm within the criminal legal system through practices such as traffic stops that disproportionately become deadly for people of color and traffic fines that create inescapable, inequitable cycles of indebtedness. Ticketing practices can prioritize profit over safety, reinforcing harm for low-income earners. Road safety efforts that overemphasize enforcement can create incentives for ineffective policing, distracting from proven solutions that are often ignored, including expanding mobility alternatives. Police reform and road safety advocates are urged to coordinate, with transportation and police departments working together toward shared goals. Car-dependent transportation and police-focused safety approaches developed together as corporate interests, public investment decisions, and racial discrimination weakened public transit and increased reliance on officers on roadsides.

Read at Streetsblog USA