Minnesota Police Face Backlash for Distributing ‘Not-Reaching Pouches’ to Use During Traffic Stops: ‘What If You Told Cops To Stop Killing People Instead’

Sarah RumpfSep 16th, 2021, 11:05 pm
 
"not-reaching pouch" from Minnesota DPS

Screenshot via Minnesota DPS on Twitter.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety faced swift backlash after they posted photos of “Not-Reaching Pouches” on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, meant to hold a driver’s license, insurance card, and vehicle registration to keep them within easy reach to produce during a traffic stop. The stated purpose of the pouches was “to help reduce deadly force encounters between law enforcement and citizens during traffic stops” by “making it easier for law enforcement to see when motorists are reaching for documents.”

Subsequent tweets said that the Minnesota DPS had purchased a quantity of the “Not-Reaching Pouches” and they and other law enforcement officers planned to pass them out at community events. A similar post was made on the agency’s Facebook page, and a press release on their website listed the law enforcement agencies that would be participating, including the Minnesota State Patrol, Saint Paul Police, St. Cloud Police, University of Minnesota Police, and several other municipal and county police departments.

The “Not-Reaching Pouches” were developed in response to the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile in a suburb of Saint Paul, MN, while he was reaching for his wallet. Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, helped create the pouches along with another woman whose son’s birthday was the same day that Castile died.

Ms. Castile’s motivations are unquestionably honorable, and this writer did not see anyone criticizing her. But the response on social media was far less charitable towards the DPS and other Minnesota law enforcement agencies involved.

Many of the critics argued that showing license, registration, and proof of insurance was such a standard part of a traffic stop, that  the obligation needed to be on police to figure out how to handle it without shooting anyone, and not rely on a gimmick device. Others expressed concerns about identity theft or other security issues related to keeping documents with such personal information in a visible area of a car’s interior, not to mention the impracticality of remembering to take one’s driver’s license out of your wallet and put it in the pouch and then remember it when you got to your destination, and so on.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.