Complaint Calls on State Office of Traffic Safety to Cease Funding
LOS ANGELES— Today, on behalf of the PUSH-LA coalition, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and UCLA Law students submitted a complaint to the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) asking it to cease funding the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) after stop data analysis revealed LAPD has engaged in discrimination against bicyclists and drivers of color in Los Angeles.
“LAPD’s stop data confirm what community members have said for years: there is no legitimate justification for the disparate impact of LAPD’s traffic stop practices on Black and Latine community members,” said Adrienna Wong, senior staff attorney at the ACLU SoCal. “Though LAPD officers more frequently stop and search Black and Latine people, statistical modeling based on stop data shows no significant relationship between being Black or Latine and being caught with contraband.”
According to state law, OTS must stop funding to any local agency that engages in discrimination, which includes practices that unjustifiably impose a disparate impact. Further, OTS is mandated to report LAPD to the California Civil Rights Department for investigation.
“In 2023, the City of LA reached a 20-year high for fatal crashes and more Angelenos died from car accidents than homicides,” said Chauncee Smith, associate director of Reimagine Justice & Safety at Catalyst California and a member of the Traffic Enforcement Alternatives Advisory Task Force for the City of LA. “Still, traffic safety has not improved despite a significant increase in funding to LAPD.”
OTS has awarded LAPD yearly grants for its Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) since 2016. For 2025, OTS awarded LAPD over $6.5 million in traffic enforcement grant funds. Per grant documents, OTS has awarded LAPD funds to target pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists, without regard for whether crash factors at the sites selected for enforcement would be better addressed by design and infrastructure interventions.
"We stand in full support of PUSH-LA's call for the Office of Traffic Safety to stop grant funding to the LAPD and investigate its discriminatory traffic enforcement practices,” said Derek Steele, executive director of the Social Justice Learning Institute. “The data shows that Black and Brown communities have suffered disproportionate harm due to pretextual stops that serve as a gateway to further criminalization. Instead of funding programs that perpetuate these injustices, funding should be redirected to community-led initiatives that prioritize safety, trust, and equity. We urge the Civil Rights Department to take immediate action and uphold its responsibility to protect our communities from systemic abuse."
PUSH-LA is calling for funds allocated towards LAPD-led traffic enforcement to be reinvested into evidence-based traffic safety solutions recommended by the Traffic Enforcement Alternatives Advisory Task Force, such as self-enforcing street infrastructure, cross-disciplinary crash investigations and partnerships with community-based organizations to provide and repair traffic safety resources. The city has delayed implementation of a 2020 city council motion that would shift the city’s approach to traffic safety away from the police by adopting these recommendations.
Read the complaint: https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/aclu-ucla_pilp_ots_complaint_lapd_with_exhibits.pdf