Straight Line of the Day: Berkeley (CA) wants to replace cops with civilians for traffic stops. Other brilliant substitutions: …

Berkeley Moves Toward Removing Police From Traffic Stops
Sacramento (not The Babylon) Bee | 7/16/20 | Janie Har

After hours of emotional public testimony and a middle-of-the-night vote by Berkeley leaders, the … California city is moving forward with a novel proposal to replace police with unarmed civilians during traffic stops …

The City Council early Wednesday approved a police reform proposal that calls for a public committee to hash out details of a new Berkeley Police Department that would not respond to calls involving people experiencing homelessness or mental illness. The committee also would pursue creating a separate department to handle transportation planning and enforcing parking and traffic laws.

{Spoiler alert:} I’m just going to jump ahead in the article a little, here:

“Nine U.S. police officers were killed during traffic stops so far this year, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. Six were shot, and three were struck by vehicles.”

The council voted for the committee to find ways to eventually cut the Police Department’s budget by half and approved an analysis of police calls and spending.

A tired but excited Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said he doesn’t expect a new transportation department overnight because conversations will be hard and detailed with complicated logistics to figure out. …

I so look forward to this reporter keeping us informed on the level of tiredness and excitation of all people she interviews, regardless of whether she has a crush on them or not.

“There may be situations where police do need to intervene, and so we need to look at all that,” he said.

The man is as smart as AOC!

“We need to look at if we do move traffic enforcement out of the Police Department, what does that relationship look like and how will police officers work in coordination with unarmed traffic enforcement personnel?”

Besides notifying next of kin?

It’s believed the plan to separate traffic enforcement from police is the first of its kind in the U.S. …

I wonder why?

“I think what Berkeley is doing is nuts,” said Mark Cronin, a director with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a union for officers. “I think it’s a big social experiment. I think it’s going to fail and it’s not going to take long for, unfortunately, traffic collisions, fatalities to increase exponentially.”

Cronin, a former traffic officer, said cities can’t rely on unattended traffic signals or camera lights to catch bad drivers and that people are needed to educate motorists on safe driving. But those people also need backup and the authority to arrest should they encounter a driver who is intoxicated, armed and fleeing a crime, or wanted on other charges.

“Traffic stops are one of the most unpredictable and therefore dangerous duties of law enforcement. There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop and to perform them effectively and safely takes months of police training in and outside of an academy,” said Frank Merenda, a former New York City Police Department captain who is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Marist College.

Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University,

… no word on whether he was tired or excited …

called the idea an “overly simplistic plan that could have deadly consequences for unarmed traffic enforcement officers.”

Nine U.S. police officers were killed during traffic stops so far this year, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. Six were shot, and three were struck by vehicles.