Memphis City Council Ends Minor Traffic Stops in Honor of Tyre Nichols.

The Memphis City Council has unanimously passed an ordinance that ends pretextual police stops, which allow police to use minor traffic infractions as grounds to investigate motorists for more serious crimes. The measure, named after Tyre Nichols, a Black man who was beaten to death by Memphis officers during a traffic stop, will still allow police to make traffic stops for primary violations but not for secondary violations or minor infractions. Civil rights groups say the tactic unfairly targets Black drivers. The end of these kinds of stops has been on the list of police reforms that activists had called for since Nichols’ death.