Advertisement

Editorial: The fatal flaw in bike policy

 
Published June 10, 2015

If harassing bicyclists in low-income Tampa neighborhoods is aimed at preventing serious crime, it's not working. Tampa police use bicycle safety laws as an excuse to stop, detain and search people they suspect of committing crimes — writing nearly 2,000 tickets in the last two years. The vast majority of tickets were issued in the same poor, black neighborhoods that have seen violent crime spike this year. Murders, shootings and gun thefts in Tampa are double this year what they were this time last year. The map above shows the location of 21 homicides this year and the bicycle tickets. Now police are asking for tips and cooperation in the same neighborhoods where they have been harassing bicyclists. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and police Chief Eric Ward should end this racial profiling, which is not helping prevent or solve major crimes. And the U.S. Justice Department, which was invited by the city to review the situation following a Tampa Bay Times investigation, should call out the practice for what it is — blatant discrimination.