Why Do So Many Traffic Stops Go Wrong?

The Daily

• Episode: Why Do So Many Traffic Stops Go Wrong?
• Website: The Daily
• Feed URL: http://rss.art19.com/the-daily
• Duration: 00:23:57
• Published: 2021-11-01 10:50

This episode contains strong language and scenes of violence. 

Over the past five years, police officers in the United States have killed more than 400 unarmed drivers or passengers — a rate of more than one a week, a Times investigation has found.

Why are such cases so common, and why is the problem so hard to fix?

Guest: David D. Kirkpatrick, a national correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Officers, trained to presume danger, can react with outsize aggression during traffic stops — sometimes with fatal consequences.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.