After spending a year engulfed in riots following the death of George Floyd, our country is once again awash in protests over another police killing.
In this case, police officer Kim Potter has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after fatally shooting a Black motorist.
What are the events that led to this?
Well, the victim, Duante Wright, was pulled over for having an expired registration (an infraction I've been guilty of but never killed for in the past). He also had an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror, which I didn't even know was a crime in some areas.
That, along with a pile of unpaid tickets for other minor infractions, was enough cause for arrest.
But Wright panicked, and for some reason attempted to scramble back into his car and drive away.
As he did so he was shot by Potter, who somehow mistook her service weapon for a taser.
To be honest, this whole situation is crazy.
There's clearly enough blame to go around but that's almost besides the point, which is that this altercation never should have resulted in a person's death.
In fact, in my opinion, it never should have happened at all.
No, what we need to do is take the human error out of these situations.
We need to eliminate the threat for both police and civilians and use technology to fill the gap.
In many cases, we're already doing this.
For example, with speeding cameras and redlight cameras, you can get a ticket without ever being pulled over.
It's happened to me repeatedly, and while I didn't love the tickets, getting my citation in the mail was better than getting pulled over by a cop.
I also in the past have been ticketed for having an expired registration just like Duante Wright, except in my case the citation was left on my windshield.
So if you can ticket me for a minor offense without my car being in motion or me being anywhere near it, why are we chasing people down on the street for the same infraction?
This isn't just an inconvenience for motorists, either. It's about keeping officers out of harm's way.
In 2015 a study by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund found that traffic-related instances were the leading cause of death among officers in 15 of the previous 20 years.
In 2019, 43 officers were killed in traffic-related incidents.
And in 2020, traffic-related fatalities accounted for 44 officer deaths. Of those, 18 were car crashes involving a collision with another vehicle, eight were single vehicle crashes, 15 were struck while on the side of the road, and three were involved in a motorcycle crash.
On top of that, thousands of assaults stemming from routine traffic stops occur each year.
This is largely because the most common reason for contact with the police is being pulled over while driving.
So if you reduce traffic stops, you can reduce the number of deaths on both sides of the equation.
Fortunately, I think that's the direction we're going.
And I've found a few technologies that could really help in that regard...
For example, I came across this little guy at a robotics conference I attended a few years ago...
It's called the Throwbot, and it's basically a camera on wheels that can be thrown and then controlled with a portable handset. It's great for surveillance in tight quarters.