The Los Angeles Police Department will revise its policy that allows it’s officer to stop vehicles for minor violations as a pretext to investigate separate crimes after a report showed there were inconsistencies in implementing the department’s current policy.

The department’s Board of Police Commissioners voted 3-0 at its Tuesday, Sept. 29 meeting to begin the process of drafting a revised policy with updated language that is more clear for officers and the public. Commissioners Daniel Tabor and Fabian Garcia were absent.

The policy refers to pretextual stops, which is when an officer will pull over a driver for a vehicle code violation as a pretext to investigate a more serious crime.

Under the current policy, officers cannot stop motorists based solely on a hunch, but instead, must act only “upon articulable information” and explain to the driver why the vehicle was pulled over with the officer’s body-worn camera on.

But in a report by the Office of Inspector General, out of 50 stops labeled as pretextual stops in January, officers had deficiencies in adhering to the department’s policy in 22 of them. In 10 of those instances, the officer failed to “sufficiently articulate the suspected more serious crime that prompted the initiation of the pretext stop,” the report said. Other violations were not specified in the report.

Gang Enforcement officers accounted for 30% of the pretextual stops reviewed, but accounted for 11 of the 22 stops in which deficiencies were found, the report said.

All of the 28 pretext stops that were compliant with the policy resulted in verbal warnings, the report said.

“I think we can agree that the results of the report are unacceptable and we need to be better and a change needs to occur,” Commissioner Jeff Skobin said during the Tuesday meeting. “What can be done today to improve what’s happening in the field?”

The report recommended clearer limits on the traffic, equipment and registration violations that may serve as the basis for a pretext stop.

The OIG recommended that the department present a draft revised policy to the Board of Police Commissioners for review and consideration within 90 days. It also recommended the Department establish procedures for training officers, conducting supervisory review and periodically audit compliance. Lastly, it recommended that the public have a chance to weigh in on the proposed revisions before they’re made final.

The department, which agreed to the need for revisions, attributed the deficiencies to officer confusion with the language of the policy. LAPD officials during the meeting said they were optimistic that the department can work to craft a policy “that gives clear guidance to our employees and brings home the outcomes we’re intending to drive home towards.”

The department implemented the current policy in March 2022.

The commissioners also recommended the new policy eliminate stops on very minor vehicle code violations.

“Coming forward, I’d like to see a policy for us to vote on…something more simple, easier to understand for the officers and the public,” said Rasha Gerges Shields, board president, adding that it should also make clear that that no stops should be made just because someone is in a high crime neighborhood.

Commissioner Heather Aubry noted the current policy says officers “should” articulate their reasons for the stop while their body worn cameras are rolling and recommended that the new policy say that officers “shall” articulate on camera.

A planned hearing would also take place for members of the public to weigh in on the revised policy, the commissioners said.

The OIG report also looked at data from April 2022 to April 2025, noting that pretextual stops accounted for 9% of all traffic stops made by officers and that of nearly 67,000 pretext stop detentions, there was a 6% arrest rate, with the most common categories being firearms, narcotics, auto theft and driving under the influence.

There were 28 arrests during that time for “very-violent-crime categories,” including nine for carjacking, eight for murder, seven for kidnapping and four for felony hit-and-run.

More than half of the people detained during pretext stops were Hispanic and nearly one-third were Black, according to the report.

Law enforcement agencies have said that pretextual stops are a “useful tool that allows officers to identify illegal firearms, recover evidence and address serious crime when the circumstances do not yet establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause for the more serious crime,” the report said.

Critics of pretextual stops argue that they are disproportionate by race. A 2020 report by the Office of the Inspector General found that there were disparities across the broad group of traffic stops in Los Angeles, with people police believed were Black overrepresented.

Another report from the Office of the Inspector General discussed in February found that from April 1, 2022, through Nov. 30, 2025, about 30% of pretextual stops resulted in evidence found, with drug evidence being the most common.

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