Cohort 2022

SPUR

Driving to Justice in the Bay Area

San Francisco, CA

In the Bay Area, Black and Latinx drivers are disproportionately stopped and ticketed for traffic infractions compared with white drivers. Law enforcement officers there give out millions of tickets a year, levying billions of dollars in fines and fees against Black and Latinx people and stripping them of wealth. In addition, these stops are among the most common interactions for officer-involved shootings, making reducing biased traffic stops key to reducing shootings.

With Catalyst Grant funding, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association will dive deep into how traffic enforcement in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose affects Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ people, people with low incomes, and other historically marginalized groups. It will use traffic enforcement data to examine who is impacted by traffic stops and how they are harmed. It will also work with drivers affected by traffic stops to develop policy recommendations on how to prevent police contact and improve policing practices. SPUR will examine the quantitative and spatial trends in traffic enforcement using data that the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 mandates that police departments collect. It will also conduct participatory research by hosting focus groups with impacted people to better identify the harms caused by biased traffic stops and develop community-led solutions.