MINNEAPOLIS — Days after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that her office would not prosecute cases linked to low-level traffic stops, law enforcement leaders met with reporters to rail against the policy change and its impact on the safety of their communities. 

The new policy, effective Oct. 15, covers stops for minor infractions such as expired registration tabs, broken taillights, cracked windshields, and other  equipment violations. Moriarty announced her decision Wednesday, a significant change that blindsided those entrusted with keeping their communities safe. 

“We got caught off guard Wednesday,” said Minnetonka Police Chief Scott Boerboom, who is also President of the Hennepin County Chiefs of Police Association. 

Boerboom said he and his fellow chiefs weren’t informed of the traffic stop policy change or asked to take a “seat at the table” to discuss the potential impacts, the pluses and minuses of ending some prosecutions, and the impact on how cops and deputies do their jobs.

“This one-size-fits-all policy will have serious consequences for policing, and for public safety across our counties,” Boerboom said at a press conference Friday, calling the new directive from Moriarty “deeply troubling.” He told reporters that every one of Hennepin County’s 45 separate communities has different needs, and the decision was made without “collaboration, consultation or respect,” just another instance of what Boerboom calls an ongoing problem with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. 

Hennepin County Sheriff Dwanna Witt believes strongly that low-level traffic stops can lead to much more serious matters, pointing out that lawful traffic stops by her deputies in 2025 have led to 175 guns being taken off the streets, 47% of the 377 total guns confiscated so far this year. 

Sheriff Witt shared stories of two recent traffic stops for illegal window tint. In the first, deputies found two men inside the car wearing ski masks and gloves, and a 9mm pistol in the vehicle had been converted to a fully automatic weapon. Ballistics traced the gun to a murder in Robbinsdale and a shooting in Minneapolis. 

In the second, a vehicle with illegal window tint and an illegal license plate display was stopped by Hennepin County deputies. Inside, they found a woman who had been stabbed by the driver, and told that he was searching for a place to kill her. The victim credits law enforcement and the traffic stop they conducted for saving her life. 

Moriarty said these practices have been proven to be ineffective and discriminatory, citing a DOJ report that found in 2018, MPD recovered a gun in less than one percent of traffic stops. 

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, said the discrimination is very much felt in the Black community. 

“I believe that it will reduce trauma in our community,” she said. “It will reduce wasting the time of officers who need to be focused on solving some of the serious crimes and murders.”

“Non-public safety traffic stops harm our community, in particular, our black and brown community members,” Moriarty said during Wednesday’s presser.

The group of law enforcement leaders says a lot has changed since 2018.

“Now is not the time to lower the standards for public safety,” Sheriff Witt emphasized. “The County Attorney already has discretion in charging decisions. But a blanket refusal to prosecute felonies uncovered during these stops is a reckless overreach.”

“This policy will embolden criminals,” Witt continued, pointing to recent pullbacks in pursuits and other policies in the city of  Minneapolis. “The criminals are paying attention, people.” 

Police chiefs from other communities, including Plymouth and New Hope, shared similar stories of how traffic stops for illegal equipment led to the arrest of violent criminals and the confiscation of firearms. 

The bottom line, says Chief Boerboom, is that policies this significant and sweeping should be taken up at the legislative level and not made by one body in a vacuum. Witt agrees, saying if the District Attorney disagrees with a law or policy, she should work with lawmakers to change it. Until then, the sheriff says, her deputies will continue to enforce Minnesota’s laws, and that includes making legal traffic stops. 

“I have been pushing for lawmakers to make new laws to help prevent the violence we have seen in our streets,” Witt concluded. “That work is undermined if we refuse to prosecute existing statutes.”

Following the press conference by law enforcement officials, Moriarty sent a response to KARE 11, asserting that other jurisdictions across the country, including Ramsey County, have successfully implemented the same policy change in recent years. 

“The same objections arise every time and they are overcome by the policy change being successful every time in shifting law enforcement resources to focus on violent crimes and dangerous driving conduct that take lives,” Moriarty said, echoing the message she shared when announcing the change in traffic stop policy.”

Moriarty adds that in Ramsey County, law enforcement says the number of guns recovered stayed stable or even increased after implementing the policy. She says if we actually care about improving public safety, hard data trumps “anecdotes and fearmongering.”

“We won’t back away from policies backed by data because of others who seek the status quo,” Moriarty said in a released statement.