*California Governor Gavin Newsom has decriminalized jaywalking.
On Saturday, Newsom signed AB 2147 (the Freedom to Walk Act), which will allow pedestrians to legally cross the street outside of an intersection without being ticketed, Complex reports.
A pedestrian can still be stopped and ticketed by an officer if the street crossing is unsafe or poses a possible collision. This bill, sponsored by Assemblymember Phil Ting, notes that an officer cannot stop a pedestrian from jaywalking “unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of collision with a moving vehicle or other device moving exclusively by human power.”
According to the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act, Black Californians are up to four and a half times more likely than white pedestrians to be stopped for jaywalking. Ting cited this data in his initial proposal to decriminalize jaywalking a year ago, but it was denied by Newsom.
“It should not be a criminal offense to safely cross the street,” Ting said in a statement. “When expensive tickets and unnecessary confrontations with police impact only certain communities, it’s time to reconsider how we use our law enforcement resources and whether our jaywalking laws really do protect pedestrians. Plus, we should be encouraging people to get out of their cars and walk for health and environmental reasons.”
California’s jaywalking laws disproportionately affect lower-income people.
“Jaywalking laws do more than turn an ordinary and logical behavior into a crime; they also create opportunities for police to racially profile,” said Jared Sanchez, Senior Policy Advocate for CalBike. “A jaywalking ticket can turn into a potentially life-threatening police encounter, especially for Black people, who are disproportionately targeted and suffer the most severe consequences of inequitable law enforcement.”
Newson’s newly signed Freedom to Walk Act will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
“All Californians will benefit from the Governor’s decision to sign AB 2147—the Freedom to Walk Act—into law,” said Zal Shroff, Senior Staff Attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
“No longer will law enforcement be able to stop people who are safely crossing the street and burden them with citations and heaps of debt. For too long, our jaywalking laws were used as a pretext to stop and harass people, especially low-income people and people of color. The reforms enacted in AB 2147 will put an end to that and, in doing so, make all of California safer for pedestrians,” Shroff continued.
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