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Residents urge Richmond council to ban predictive policing and demand consistent traffic‑stop data
Summary
Members of the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project told the public safety committee that Black drivers face disproportionate traffic stops and urged council to ban predictive policing, require the police to publish clearer traffic‑stop data and work with the Commonwealth's attorney to decriminalize certain misdemeanors.
Members of the Richmond Transparency and Accountability Project told the Public Safety Standing Committee that racial disparities in traffic stops demand immediate policy attention.
Public commenter Dream Boyd described a December 2020 traffic stop she said left her "traumatized," saying officers handcuffed and searched her and her brother. "Now, since that every time I see the blue lights, I'm in panic. My heart is racing," she said.
The group pressed the committee to take three steps: pass an ordinance banning predictive policing in Richmond, require the Richmond Police Department (RPD) to publish more consistent traffic‑stop data, and encourage the Commonwealth's attorney to decriminalize certain misdemeanors and minor traffic offenses.
Why it matters: speakers said data and lived experience show persistent disparities. Lauren McGarry, an attorney and RTAP member, cited the Community Policing Act and local analyses and said Black drivers are "nearly 4 times more likely to be arrested and searched than white drivers" according to the city's traffic‑stop dashboard. "This is not just a statistical anomaly. This is a pattern of systemic inequity," McGarry said.
RTAP speakers called predictive policing a feedback loop that concentrates enforcement in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods. Yohanse Whitaker, a Seventh District resident, told the committee RPD had divided the city into "29,000 micro zones" and urged council to "pass an ordinance that bans the use of predictive policing in our communities." Kayla, another RTAP speaker, described being followed and stopped while en route to a hospital and said officers later issued a warning for a registration issue she disputed.
Chief Rick Edwards of the Richmond Police Department responded to the comments in the same meeting. Edwards said the data RPD uses to identify gun "hot spots" come from community reports of shootings and robberies, not from police response statistics. He said officers often cannot determine a driver's race before approaching a stopped vehicle and encouraged anyone who believes they were mistreated to file a complaint: "We will review it. We will find officers out of policy if they break that policy," he said.
Edwards also defended hot‑spot enforcement in some areas as having produced results: he told the committee that concentrated efforts in the ShackleBottom this past summer corresponded with a reported 12% drop in overall violent crime in the area. He said RPD will investigate complaints and that body‑worn camera footage is used in reviews.
No ordinance or formal action on predictive policing was taken at the meeting. Committee members and staff discussed next steps informally; staff did not identify a scheduled vote on an ordinance. The public comment period closed after the RTAP remarks.
