Lewis grew up in Chicago and has been pulled over by officers more times than he can count. To ensure his safety, he has installed a GoPro camera facing inward in his car and stays up to date on officer locations while on the road.
Lewis, who now lives in Lawrence, Kansas, drives a sports car, a Corvette Z06.
“Some cars get stopped more often than others. When I get stopped, I start recording,” he told CNN. “I have Waze on my cell phone that tells me, with considerable accuracy, where police or highway patrol are located. I have an escort radar detector to alert me. I make sure I am mentally and physically alert.”
Such radar detectors scan for radio waves that officers use to determine how fast cars are going, and beep to warn motorists when they detect them nearby.
During traffic stops, Black people must make quick decisions intense situations with little time to think, Lewis said.
“Once the handcuffs are on, it’s too late and you know you could be killed,” he added. “And, you know, some White cops will lie about it and get away with it.”
“I was pissed off when I saw what happened to the young lieutenant. I thought about what I would do,” Lewis said. “A Black man on some lonely highway at night … cannot expect fair and just treatment, cannot expect to be treated with dignity.”
CNN has reached out to the National Association of Chiefs of Police for comment but has not heard back. Every time Dave Jordan is pulled over by a police officer, his chief goal is to stay alive.
“Since then, as a rule, I keep my wallet in my cup holder and my insurance and registration in my visor. When I’m pulled over, I toss my wallet on the dashboard, roll down the window and keep my hands on the wheel,” he told CNN. “That way, I don’t have to reach for anything.”
Just days before that traffic stop, Jordan had renewed his expired tags. But the encounter still terrified him.
“The stop wasn’t expected but I was prepared for it. My license and tags were current. I had insurance,” he said. “Even still, flashing blue lights behind you always strikes fear in your heart. It doesn’t matter that I worked on-air as a reporter, have no prior convictions or arrests. I’m still a Black man at the end of the day.”
To avoid attracting attention from police, Dallas resident Barry Hairston makes sure everything in his car is in working condition, from taillights to windshield wipers.
His wife put a photo of his insurance card on his phone. That way, it’s always accessible in case officers can’t pull it up.
“Whenever I see a police car, I get a feeling of anxiety just knowing they have the power to do what they want. That it comes down to my word against theirs. I’m in my late 40s, and I still have that trauma,” he said.
“The only difference is we didn’t have the words for it then, and now we do. And also now I know my rights, as compared to when I was 18,” he said.
If he needs to move his hands for whatever reason, he asks the officer for permission.
“Not that they don’t deserve respect, but I have to be very extra because you don’t want to piss them off because you don’t know what could happen next,” he said.
Like Jordan, Hairston said he tries to do whatever it takes to make sure a traffic stop does not escalate into a deadly encounter.
And most days, before he starts his car, he says a prayer.
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