Nesrie
1926
And then you have something like this.
Straight out shoots an unarmed guy in jail, but it’s okay, he honestly thought it was a taser. I am sure if just a regular ole citizen just said oops, my bad, it would “excused” too.
It is kinda funny, but the possibility of being shot by a cop is actually one of the things that is registering on the “cons” side of traveling to the US as a tourist.
How many black tourists travel to the US annually?
Menzo
1931
Since today’s police look at their jurisdictions as a warzone, I imagine they think that’s a pretty good K/D ratio and want to see it improved.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/14/one-solution-keeping-traffic-stops-turning-violent-robot-that-separates-police-officers-drivers/?utm_term=.570a85009287
Sort of a ridiculously over-engineered solution, but if you can’t trust cops to not freak out over people being nervous in front of them, this isn’t a terrible way around it.
Menzo
1933
An interesting idea to be sure, but did you see what it actually is? The whole thing is attached to a freakin rail that extends from the officer’s car. Totally nuts considering you can have an autonomous bot roll right up just as well.
Of course it’s just a prototype and nobody is actually testing it, so who knows if this gains traction.
Or we could get rid of guns, and police won’t need to worry about getting shot at traffic stops like the rest of the world which utilize proper gun control measures.
Why have police stops at all. Just take a picture of the car, and send them a ticket.
Menzo
1936
There are cases when that should be the default, but if you’re looking for someone, or a stolen car, for example, you need to pull people over and start asking questions. Timothy McVeigh was found through a routine traffic stop.
EDIT: just to add that I think one clear area where the cops should just back off is car chases. These days with drones and helicopters the SOP should be to just let them go and track from above, or through their car GPS signal.
ShivaX
1937
That’s basically traffic cameras and people aren’t fans.
Is there such a thing as like a taser for a car? If one were mounted on front grill of police car and shot. Stop sticks barely ever work.
Sure there is, haven’t you seen Black Panther?
ShivaX
1940
There are EMP-based devices.
Hell, On-Star does it. Just equip all cars.
Menzo
1942
I think for things like speeding tickets or other ‘minor’ moving violations, this should be the default. Just have the cop stay in his car and use his bullhorn to tell the driver that he’ll receive a ticket in the mail.
However, I also think that the “routine traffic stop” is used to cover for evidence of crimes being committed that is collected illegally or through methods and sources police don’t want people to know. Cops find out through an informant or Constitutionally-questionable portable cell tower that someone is driving through the state with a trunk full of drugs, then find a reason to pull them over because of broken tail light, expired tag, or whatever as pretext to search the car.
So any switch to automating the process might be frowned upon for removing those opportunities.
I think for certain offenses (including egregious speeding and red light running), there’s an immediate need to abate that behavior that is only served by a stop. Taking a picture and sending a ticket won’t stop that behavior, in the short term. I assume your bullhorn comment is AFTER making a stop, which would achieve the goal of immediate abatement.
Menzo
1944
Yeah that’s what I mean. Make the stop, but the cop doesn’t get out of his car. He runs the driver’s license plate, makes sure there are no outstanding warrants or that the car isn’t stolen, then takes a photo and everything else happens by mail.
Though this does neglect one thing, and that’s that the cops have to positively ID the driver, so there needs to be a way to get a photo of the driver as well. And asking the driver to step out of the vehicle for a photo on a busy highway median is potentially dangerous.
