Philadelphia is the first major city in the United States to prohibit minor traffic stops

Philadelphia is on the verge of becoming the first major city in the country to prohibit police officers from stopping low-level traffic controls after Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order this week to pass a so-called “Equal Driving Act”.

Kenney’s office said in a statement that he is expected to sign the order on Wednesday.

The bill, which the Philadelphia City Council passed last month by a 14-2 vote, aims to end stops on violations like broken taillights and expired inspection stickers – and reflects a similar move taken in Virginia following the assassination of George Floyd was enacted.

Critics have long argued that the police use such violations to target people of color.

Councilor behind the law Isaiah Thomas said in a statement that the measure was necessary to end traffic stops that “promote discrimination rather than public safety”.

“With this vote, I breathe a sigh of relief that my sons and the children of my friends will grow up in a city where driving over is not a rite of passage, but a measure of the safety of your driving and vehicle, regardless of the skin color of the driver”, he said.

According to data provided by Thomas’s office to NBC News, 72 percent of Black Philadelphia residents have been stopped by police in the past 12 months. Almost all of these stops were for code violations that did not warrant a ticket, Thomas’ office said, and guns or illegal drugs were found at less than one percent of the stops.

The new measure, which gives the police 120 days to train officers before it comes into force, turns violations previously viewed as “primary” into “secondary” violations. In a statement, the department compared this to violating a seat belt.

“Essentially, this means that the officer has to witness another higher-level security breach to make a stop and then can only quote the person or the seat belt violation during those stops,” the department said. “The officers do not use the seat belt injury as the main reason for the stop.”

The statement praised the legislation – and the process of drafting it – and said the department “really appreciates the willingness of the city council and its team to work with PPD and shape this path forward”.

The law, the ministry said, will allow officials to enforce violations in ways that reduce racial inequalities, heal police-community relationships, and “enable us to protect public safety while protecting the constitutional rights of our community”.

In a statement to NBC News, Philadelphia Police Union President John McNesby criticized the law as “awful” and called it “a sweeping effort by local politicians to claim a victory in police reform.”

“We are simply asking the public to obey all local laws that are written to keep everyone safe,” he said.