Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis addressed the prospect of a reduction of traffic stops for minor infractions in a recent question-and-answer with the media:
“We’re mostly concerned about erratic driving, reckless driving, and really, that’s all over the city. It’s not all over just Memphis, but it bleeds over into some of the other counties as well. The drag racing and the various types of maneuvers – wheelies, and all of that, we see on our streets is extremely dangerous for the individuals who are in the cars and also, other innocent by-standers.
“I will say that Memphis has a serious problem with counterfeit tags. And what we are finding about counterfeit tags is that many of the counterfeit tags are on stolen vehicles. And it is a way to hide the stolen vehicles. But, at the same time, what we’re trying to do is train our officers … to identify what a counterfeit tag looks like and what a real drive out tag looks like.
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“And we get all kinds of complaints about speeding, not just on our freeways, but on our city streets. So, there will be increased enforcement as it relates to the erratic driving on our city streets. But it won’t be targeted toward broken tail lights.
“There is no inspection process on vehicles in the city of Memphis. So, we have no concern at this point for individual vehicles that don’t pass inspection.…We don’t plan to target individuals for minor infractions. We have some very, very serious traffic issues in the city of Memphis, and that is where our focus will be.”
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