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Berkeley is the First City to Remove Police from Traffic Stops

The new plan aims to lessen racial profiling by having unarmed city workers instead of armed police.
By - posted 7/16/2020 No Comment

Thank you KRON4 for letting us know that Berkeley became the first city in the US to remove armed police officers from traffic stops.

The Berkeley City Council voted early Wednesday morning on July 15, after a long 9 hour City Council meeting, to make sweeping changes to the police department including to move toward the goal of cutting the Police Department budget in half.

The approved plan will establish a new Department of Transportation as well as a community safety coalition and steering committee. They will remove armed police offers from traffic enforcement, as well as mental health and social service calls.

This makes Berkeley the first city in the country to make this change. The new plan aims to lessen racial profiling by having unarmed civilian city workers instead of armed police respond to traffic violations as part of a new transportation department. 

According to Mayor Arreguín, Berkeley is not proposing to abolish the police. By removing police from traffic enforcement, mental health and social service calls, “this would not only free up money in our city budget. This will also enable police officers to focus on what they’re trained to do which is to address serious and violent crimes” Arreguín said.

Read more from KRON4.