LAPD’s New Policy Reduces Traffic Stops, but Crime Is on the Rise

A Los Angeles Police Department officer in his vehicle in downtown Los Angeles on April 13, 2017. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

After the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles Police Commission updated a policy earlier this year to restrict officers’ ability to make traffic stops, critics say doing so has led to an uptick in crime.

At issue is what’s known as pretextual stop, or a traffic stop conducted by a police officer on suspicion of a larger crime at play.