Reckless and Dangerous Driving: A Big Public Safety issue

In our ongoing  public safety dialogue, an under-considered problem is reckless and dangerous driving.  Although the community seems to be taking notice now.

There was an initiative to prohibit Minneapolis Police traffic stops for “minor violations”.  They usually cite expired registrations or equipment violations.  It was however, a minor violation that got Timothy McVey stopped after the Oklahoma City bombing.  Nevertheless, a prohibition on traffic stops for such violations was made MPD policy in March of 2021.  The justification for that policy was incidents like Philando Castille, where a stop for a minor violation resulted in the horrific unjustified police taking of a life.  No question, there are also tens of thousands of traffic stops that are uneventful, but demonstrate to drivers the possible consequences of dangerous driving.

Let us be clear eyed however.   Sometimes drivers will refuse to stop and a pursuit could ensue.  In my early patrol years there really was no such thing as calling off a pursuit.  Sometimes pursuits result in grave injury or death to the offender, police, or innocent third parties.  Early in Mayor Rybak’s administration, March 2002, the pursuit of a woman in a mental health crisis, resulted in her car careening into a recent retiree, Duane Mumm, standing on a corner, killing him.   The following day Mayor Rybak, Police Chaplain Father Terry Hayes, and I paid a visit to the family in Richfield.  That was among the hardest things I did in my police career, it was the right thing to do, but we had no good answers for the family.

MPD pursuit policy has become far more restrictive and it should be.  However, in recent days there was television coverage of a reckless driver, likely a juvenile, performing in front of a squad car, possibly trying to bait officers into a pursuit.  The officer made no attempt to stop the car, which drew criticism.  Chief O’Hara said the officer was following department policy.  Pursuits of stolen cars are prohibited if there are no other factors, such as apprehending a violent criminal. Otherwise the need to arrest does not justify the risk of a pursuit.  Police standing by doing nothing looks terrible and I can tell you, it feels terrible.   It also felt terrible to visit the family of Duane Mumm.

Officers today have been socialized to consider the risk/benefit of pursuits and many will break off a pursuit of their own volition.  Sometimes a supervisor must make that call.  As someone who has driven and ridden in pursuits, adrenalin and sometimes testosterone, can cloud your judgement.

Today, if things go wrong with a police encounter, there is a high probability officers will get no benefit of the doubt from policy makers and activists.  What will not get officers in trouble, is looking the other way.

In addition to policymaker scorn of police traffic stops, the current anemic MPD staffing levels also have an impact.  When there are four or six officers working the entire 3rd Precinct, officers think very hard about making a DWI arrest.  This will take them off the street for at least two hours.  In the meantime, backups for their partners on the shift may be entirely gone. Unruly crowds have been emboldened to harass officers doing their jobs.  There is also peer pressure to avoid such things.  Is there any question how dangerous drunk driving is?

Oh, we could have civilian enforcement officers handle traffic violations.  What if drivers won’t stop or won’t obey the civilian authority’s directions?  That already happens to sworn officers.  Would civilians even have authority under the 4^th amendment to make a “seizure” of another person? A former city attorney friend told me they would not.  What if an otherwise simple accident involves drunk driving (sometimes drunks resist physically)?  What if the driver or passengers have warrants?

Dangerous driving in Minneapolis is no longer rare.  Like most of you I am sure, I have witnessed awful driving behavior.  I was driving on the east side of Bde Maka Ska, where there is a stop sign pretty much every block between Lake Street and East 36^th Street.  I stopped at one of the signs and the driver behind me laid on his horn.  At the next stop sign he pulled around me without stopping, in the oncoming traffic lane, and blew through the sign.  Yesterday, I was stopped southbound on Lyndale at 31^st Street.  The light was just plain red for me and left turners.  Nevertheless, a driver approached the left turn lane and slowing just enough to make the turn, blew through the red light.  That is a very busy intersection.  I had an identical experience while stopped for the light north bound on Penn Avenue at 12^th Avenue North. You must be triple cautious to drive in Minneapolis these days.

Dangerous?  Remember the five young Somali women who were killed at 2nd and Lake.

In a March 4, 2025 article, Axios has reported that traffic enforcement in Minneapolis has declined 82%.  University of Minnesota Associate Professor Nichole Morris found a dramatic decrease in traffic law enforcement by police does impact public safety.  I would say that an 82% decline is dramatic.

Can traffic stops be misused?  Yes, but with clear policies and engaged supervisory action it can be minimized.  I was a patrol officer for eleven years, mostly in the Phillips neighborhood, when there were five bars and two liquor stores between Chicago and Bloomington on Franklin.  I made a lot of traffic stops.  Sometimes for expired registration or wrong plates on the car.  I didn’t write tags every time.  Actually, a majority of drivers just got warnings from my partners and I.   A high proportion of Phillips residents were indigenous and later Latino. So yes, giving breaks was racially equitable.

In leadership positions, I always hated officers making stops for air fresheners hanging from the rear view mirror, i.e. “obstructed windshield”.  I do think that pretext and was sometimes used as racial profiling.  The Supreme Court has ruled pretext stops are legal so long as there is an underlying legitimate reason for the stop. Let me underscore, a “legitimate” reason, that would not include racial motivations.  I highly discouraged air freshener stops, no one was being fooled, everyone knew why the stop was made.  It did way more harm than good.

Racial data collection in police stops usually includes whether and car and occupants were searched.  We didn’t search a car unless the car was  being impounded, had been used in a crime, the driver was under arrest and there was no one he/she wanted to turn the car over to, a gun or drugs were in plain view etc.  I don’t know when more routine searches started or why.  I think it became “stop and frisk” for cars.  Forbid it or at least require a supervisor to show up, evaluate, and give direction according to policy.

Believe it or not, traffic stops can also result in a positive contact with a citizen, even though no one likes to be stopped.  It begins when an officer introduces him or herself, is as friendly as possible, remains professional, and explains the reason for the stop.  A long standing tactic was to ask a driver if they knew why they were pulled over.  If they said yes and acknowledged why, they had just incriminated themselves.  That approach has been banned.  The point is don’t try to trick people. It is even possible to issue a citation, without acrimony.  We called this, “selling they ticket”.  If you could have written multiple offenses, but did not, let the driver know, some will realize they got a break.  For others, explaining you take no pleasure in writing tags, but have a duty to reduce hazardous driving, may help too.

I recently discovered a positive trend in traffic enforcement by Minneapolis Police officers.  As mentioned earlier, given the challenging level of patrol staffing, I had heard there was distinct peer pressure to avoid getting tied up on a drunk driving arrest for hours. The MPD administration provided me the attached table.  As I anticipated, DWI arrests declined sharply after 2020, given the hostility toward police and the decline of sworn strength.  However, to my surprise and to the credit of MPD, DWI enforcement has rebounded, significantly in 2024.  Even considering the continued reduced staffing levels, DWI arrests per officer are now higher than 2019.  I say, kudos to Chief O’Hara and the officers of MPD.

There are other strategies to increase traffic safety.  Engineering and “traffic calming” through design are helpful.  I think humans remain humans.  Some people appreciate the need to obey traffic laws.  Others need the incentive of avoiding genuine consequences. Our city is genuinely much less safe for want of traffic enforcement.