The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) has released a new report and brief, “Curbing Pretextual Stops: Early Evidence of Harm Reduction in San Francisco,” in partnership with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office (SFPDO). CPE’s analysis found that San Francisco’s pretext-stop policy (San Francisco Police Department General Order 9.07) significantly reduced harmful interactions between police officers and drivers without compromising public safety. The policy was designed to curb racial bias in traffic stops by restricting San Francisco Police Department officers from making stops for several minor reasons, such as a broken tail light, which were often used as a pretext to conduct unnecessary searches and led to uses of force against drivers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 30, 2026
MEDIA CONTACTS: CPE Communications, comms@policingequity.org; San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, PDR-MediaRelations@sfgov.org
**PRESS RELEASE**
New Report Finds San Francisco’s Pretextual Stops Policy Benefits Public Safety by Reducing Stops, Searches, and Use of Force
A new report from the Center for Policing Equity and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office found that pretext stops declined while crime continued to fall.
San Francisco, CA — The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) has released a new report and brief, “Curbing Pretextual Stops: Early Evidence of Harm Reduction in San Francisco,” in partnership with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office (SFPDO). CPE’s analysis found that San Francisco’s pretext-stop policy (San Francisco Police Department General Order 9.07) significantly reduced harmful interactions between police officers and drivers without compromising public safety. The policy was designed to curb racial bias in traffic stops by restricting San Francisco Police Department officers from making stops for several minor reasons, such as a broken tail light, which were often used as a pretext to conduct unnecessary searches and led to uses of force against drivers.
CPE’s analysis of San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) traffic stop data from 2018 through 2025 found that pretextual stops, also known as non-safety stops, decreased following the implementation of the pretextual-stop policy. During the same period, discretionary searches and use-of-force incidents during traffic stops also declined. Additionally, the report found that public safety indicators improved or remained stable after the policy took effect. Crime continued to decline, contraband recovery remained stable, and the overall number of firearms and other weapons recovered through traffic stop searches did not change.
Key report findings:
- Pretextual stops declined further after the policy took effect. The decline occurred across racial groups, although significant racial disparities remain. Black drivers continue to experience pretext stops twice as often as White drivers.
- Pretextual stops were more likely to lead to discretionary searches. Officers conducted discretionary searches – searches that officers are not required to make – in 10.7% of pretextual stops compared to 3.6% of other traffic stops. Despite the higher search rates, officers found contraband less often in searches during pretextual stops.
- Reducing pretextual stops did not decrease the number of weapons found during traffic stops. The overall number of firearms and other weapons recovered from searches at traffic stops remain unchanged following implementation of the pretext-stop policy.
- Officers used force twice as often during pretextual stops compared to all other traffic stops. The reduction in pretextual stops also coincided with the lowest rate of use of force over the 2018-2025 period.
- Crime continued to decline. The average number of violent crimes decreased from between 127 and 165 per day from 2018 through 2023, to 82 per day in 2025.
The human costs of pretextual stops
To better understand the impact of pretextual stops on San Francisco residents, CPE interviewed 24 community members who had experienced traffic stops. Participants described similar negative impacts on their physical and mental health, means of transportation, driving habits, relationships, and finances. For example, one driver, a Black man, said, “So I’m scared to even go out with my family … And I think that was the cause of them pulling us over. It was just they saw too many Black people in the car.” These interviews show how pretextual stops contribute to perceptions and experiences of racial bias.
The next step: Follow the data
San Francisco’s pretextual-stop policy improved public safety outcomes in a short period of time, but there is more work to be done. CPE and SFPDO are encouraged by the early results from the implementation of the policy and recommend further expanding its benefits with 14 additional stop reasons, including tinted windows, cracked windshields and rear windows, excessive noise from vehicles, missing front plates, and others.
“Research shows that pretextual stops disproportionately target Black and Latinx drivers, and lead to heightened safety risks from use of force, discretionary searches, and other cascading harms,” said Matt Graham, Senior Data Analyst at CPE. “Our analysis found that this policy addresses a community need to reduce unnecessary and potentially harmful police interactions, particularly for vulnerable community members. There is also an opportunity to expand the policy’s success by including additional stop types, mirroring similar policies in other jurisdictions and localities.”
“While this report shows that the policy is starting to work, the real test is whether it changes policing on the street and not just how officers categorize their stops,” said Deputy Public Defender Brian Cox, the Director of the Integrity Unit at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. “We need regular audits to ensure officers are not simply changing how they document or justify pretext stops, including by relying on local ordinance violations, while the same racial disparities persist. The goal was never better paperwork. It was fewer unnecessary stops and less racially disparate enforcement.”
“Racial bias and harassment during traffic stops have long harmed communities, resulting in unnecessary arrests, loss of personal property, trauma to families, and even deadly uses of force. San Francisco is part of a larger movement developing across the country to reduce those harms, and expanding our city’s current policy will contribute to that progress,” said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju.
San Francisco’s experience is part of a broader movement among a growing number of jurisdictions seeking to reduce the harms caused by pretextual stops. Other jurisdictions and localities have recently implemented similar policies, including Oregon and Philadelphia, PA. San Francisco has shown that reducing pretextual stops can decrease the rate of discretionary searches and use-of-force incidents without compromising public safety. The next step is to follow the data, address persistent racial disparities, and ensure that the policy keeps pace with how traffic stops are actually being used.
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The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) is a 501c3 non-profit that uses data science toempower vulnerable communities—particularly Black communities—to partner with leaders on redesigning public safety systems that facilitate bold, innovative, and lasting change.
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, for over 100 years, has provided dedicated and passionate legal representation to people who are charged with a crime and unable to afford an attorney. Our mission is to protect and defend the rights of our clients through effective, vigorous, compassionate, and creative legal advocacy.