Law enforcement officers have long used minor traffic violations as a gateway for searching vehicles and compiling incriminating evidence, but scrutiny of the practice has only grown.

This is especially true in the wake of last month's police killing of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Minnesota, a fatal encounter initiated over expired plates.

In Pennsylvania, Spotlight PA details the justifications State Police use to enter and search vehicles, noting they are sometimes built on shaky legal grounds and employed with little oversight. 

In Allegheny County, activists are calling for an end to "routine" traffic stops and outlined 14 moving violations that police should bypass on patrol. Statewide proposals on this front are few and far between. 

But the broader push for police reforms in Harrisburg continues at an urgent pace — just with slower-moving results than many advocates had hoped for.

THE CONTEXT: Weeks after George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police in 2020, Black state House Democrats in Pennsylvania took control of the chamber's dais to demand action on long-languishing police reforms.

Now, one week after a former officer was convicted in Floyd's death, WHYY examines the status of the bills, measures, and priorities the case inspired here. Of 19 total, just two became actual law. 

"There’s still a lot of work that has to be done," state Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia) told the outlet. 

The short-list of Democratic priorities includes changes to Act 111, which governs collective bargaining rights for police officers and, in turn, unions’ ability to reinstate officers who are fired for infractions like excessive force. The notion even won support from some Republicans last year. But the legislature ultimately didn’t take action — and it's unclear if it will now.

» Learn something from today's edition? Pay it forward so someone else can tomorrow by making a contribution of any amount to Spotlight PA.