SOME TRAFFIC STOPS

Traffic stop measure sparks passionate debate before Senate panel

Sen. Charles Sydnor III to hearing: ‘This is the beginning of a conversation’

By: William J. Ford 

Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) testifies Tuesday to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on legislation to reclassify some traffic violations as secondary offenses. With him are Public Defender Natasha Dartigue and Tia Holmes, right, an appellate attorney at the Office of the Public Defender. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Supporters of a bill that would reduce the reasons that police can pull a motorist over say that not only will it help reduce the racial disparity in traffic stops, but it will protect police officers as well.

“We’re in the 21st century. Law enforcement is using all types of technologies,” said Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County), the sponsor of the bill that would reclassify a number of primary traffic violations — for which police can pull a driver over — to secondary violations.

“All I’m saying is maybe we need to look at some of these technologies and figure out how we can redeploy our shrinking police staffs to deal with crime that really, really matters, rather than bogging them down with these types of offenses,” Sydnor said Tuesday in testimony to his colleagues on the Judicial Proceedings Committee. “Making them secondary offenses. No one is getting rid of any laws that are already on the books. It’s a reclassification.”

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