This statement is an attachment to the resolution, "Condemning Racial and Ethnic Profiling in Traffic Stops."

Law enforcement officers committed to the lifesaving benefits of proactive traffic enforcement are aware of its ancillary benefits in terms of crime prevention, reduction, and criminal apprehension. Proactive traffic enforcement should be carried out in a manner that strikes a balance between the right of citizens to enjoy a quality of life free from crime and traffic crashes and the right of citizens to be free from unreasonably intrusive police conduct; therefore, the International Association of Chiefs of Police proposes the following Guiding Principles: Sir Robert Peel, in 1829, said that the first duty of the police is the prevention of crime; that the police can only be effective if they earn the trust of the public; and that the law must be enforced equally and impartially for all citizens. These principles are as sound today as they were in Peel’s day. Community policing as practiced today involves a partnership between the police and the public that addresses crime, neighborhood deterioration, traffic problems and other quality of life issues. Lessons can be learned from the most successful officers who are able to go beyond the traffic stop and apprehend criminal suspects. Police officers should be assigned to areas where there is a high likelihood that crashes will be reduced and/or criminal suspects will be apprehended. Achieving a higher rate of compliance in the use of safety belts and child safety restraints through proactive enforcement will save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of disabling injuries from traffic crashes each year. Citizens of particular age, socioeconomic, and ethnic groups appear to have lower compliance levels in the use of these safety devices than other groups and therefore may be disproportionately represented in enforcement action for violations of safety belt and child restraint laws, but to the extent that enforcement of these laws brings a greater number of these citizens into compliance, these citizens will also disproportionately share in the lifesaving benefits of such enforcement. Enforcement efforts can be enhanced by effective public information efforts. Officers involved in traffic enforcement should be properly trained. Training programs in traffic enforcement must emphasize the need to respect the rights of all citizens to be free of unreasonable government intrusion or police action. Traffic enforcement programs must be accompanied by effective supervisory oversight to ensure that officers do not go beyond the parameters of reasonableness in conducting such activities. Traffic stops should be made only with articulable suspicion that the person stopped has committed a traffic violation. Appropriate enforcement action should always be completed at traffic stops, generally in the form of a warning, citation, or arrest. No motorist, once cited or warned, should be detained beyond the point where there exists no reasonable suspicion of further criminal activity. Officers making traffic stops shall not make them based on race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Motor vehicle driver license information regarding the race of drivers stopped for traffic violations should be recorded whenever available and this data utilized by police departments to determine the extent to which racial minorities are stopped for traffic violations in proportion to their absolute numbers in the area’s population, and the number of minority stops which result in criminal apprehension versus the overall numbers of stops that result in such violations. In jurisdictions where racial data is not contained on driver licenses and the racial characteristics of motorists are not visibly apparent, police officers should not be required to risk offending citizens by asking them their race at the time of a motor vehicle stop.