The Illinois state government wants young drivers to learn how to handle being pulled over by the police.
Last Friday, Illinois State Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that will require driver’s education instructors to teach kids how to deal with police stops. The bill wouldn’t go into effect until the 2017-18 school year at public and private institutions that offer instruction to teens under the age of 18. The Illinois Secretary of State’s office will be responsible for developing the specific guidelines of the course.
The bill was sponsored by Illinois Democratic State Sen. Julie Morrison, of Deerfield.
Morrison and Rauner say that the bill is aimed at preventing teens from doing anything the police can interpret in a negative way, which could allegedly result in a serious situation.
“My hope is that if we uniformly require that driver’s education include the protocol and what is expected when you interact with a police officer, that things will not escalate,” Morrison told ABC 7 Chicago. The bill has also received praise from retired Chicago cop Eddie Chapman, who wrote a book 10 years ago on how drivers should deal with traffic stops (the book is currently used in Chicago public schools).
When the AmNews reached out to the New York Police Department and the Bill de Blasio administration multiple times for a comment, the paper was met with silence. But others were willing to talk.
“It’s troubling that deadly traffic encounters have become so regular that we are incorporating deescalation tactics into our driver’s education curriculum,” said Alyssa Aguilera, co-executive director of the advocacy group VOCAL-NY, in a statement sent to the AmNews. “Of course young people should be aware of their rights and responsibilities when interacting with the police, but the real attention should be on our public servants to exert their power without abuse or discrimination.
“Instead of following the footsteps of Illinois, I hope New York legislators spend their time passing legislation like the Right to Know Act, which will provide accountability for when police officers violate the rights of New Yorkers,” Aguilera concluded.
Chapman, the former Chicago cop, was inspired to write the book after his daughter, Latanya Haggerty, was shot and killed in 1999 during a traffic stop gone wrong. But local activists in New York believe that the focus here and around the country should be on the police.
“While it’s important for community members to know their rights and how to survive police abuses during encounters, elected officials should be focusing on ending these police abuses by holding officers and departments accountable rather than deflecting from the underlying causes with a focus on victims’ characteristics or gestures,” said Mark Winston Griffith, the executive director of the community organization group Brooklyn Movement Center, in a statement. “The New York State Legislature should pass and the governor should sign the Police-STAT Act into law so the public has data on how policing is impacting people throughout the state—the New York State Assembly took leadership in passing it last session.”
Griffith then brought the issue close to home when discussing the New York City Council Speaker.
“The New York City Council should pass the Right to Know Act to end the unnecessary abuses that continue to occur in New Yorkers’ most common encounters with police—something Speaker Mark-Viverito’s backroom deal fails to do.”