(CNN)When Philadelphia's mayor signs landmark legislation as soon as this week, the city will become the first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations -- stops that studies show target Black drivers at disproportionately higher rates.

The Driving Equality Bill, passed 14-2 by the city council on October 14, categorizes certain motor vehicle code violations as "primary violations," which allow officers to pull people over in the name of public safety, and "secondary violations" that don't meet the criteria for a lawful traffic stop, according to the office of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who authored the bill.
The bill will take effect 120 days after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signs it into law, which his office said he intends to do.
While Philadelphia is the largest city to ban such traffic stops, some local and state governments have also enacted similar policies.
sey County, Minnesota, announced prosecutors will no longer pursue cases against people who are unfairly targeted and detained during non-public safety stops. The new policy comes five years after former St. Anthony Police Department officer Jeronimo Yanez fatally shot Philando Castile seven times during a traffic stop in 2016 over a broken tail light, prosecutors said.
In Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey announced in August that the city's police officers will no longer conduct pretextual traffic stops for low-level offenses as part of his 2022 budget proposal. Officers are prohibited from making pretextual stops for "expired tabs, an item dangling from a mirror, or an expired license," according to a city news release.
In March, Virginia became the first state to prohibit these stops within three months of the bill's introduction. Law enforcement officers cannot lawfully stop motorists for driving without a light illuminating a license plate, without brake lights or a high mount stop light, and with certain sun-shading materials and tinting films, according to the legislation.
"The bill also provides that no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop, search, or seize any person, place, or thing solely on the basis of the odor of marijuana," the Virginia bill states.
The police department is on board
Dennis Jay Kenney, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CNN that there are "risks in both directions" in allowing police to make traffic stops for minor violations and prohibiting them altogether.
"The danger of not eliminating them is that it drives a wedge between the public and the police," Kenney said. "If you're tired of driving while Black, you're less likely to cooperate during these stops."
"The risk in the other direction, in the case of traffic safety, is that we prohibit some behavior and require you to have taillights because it's safer, people can more readily stop behind you. So, by saying these violations no longer matter, then to the extent that they impact public safety, then public safety will be negatively impacted," Kenney added.
State AGs are 'stepping into the police reform business' to hold officers accountable
State AGs are 'stepping into the police reform business' to hold officers accountable
Kenney said Philadelphia has decided that pretextual stops are disruptive and the risk to the relationship between the police and the community "is greater than the likely pay off of getting a bad guy every now and then."
Once the Driving Equality Bill is signed into law, the Philadelphia police will work on directive amendments and necessary training. Max Weisman, a spokesperson for Councilmember Thomas, said the police department has exhibited support for the bill and has negotiated in "good faith."
The bill was informed by the development of the Bailey pilot program, a result of the 2011 settlement agreement of Bailey v. City of Philadelphia, which requires the police department to collect data on all stop-and-frisks and store it in an electronic database. The lawsuit alleged that thousands of people in Philadelphia are illegally stopped, frisked and detained by police officers.
Low-level offenses such as registration plate and bumper issues will now be categorized as secondary offenses, which bar officers from conducting traffic stops, unless there is an additional high-level safety violation, according to the Philadelphia police department.
"We believe this is a fair and balanced approach to addressing racial disparity without compromising public safety," the department said in a statement. "This modified enforcement model for car stops furthers the Department's priority of addressing the issue of racial disparity in the Department's investigative stops and complements the Department's efforts to address these same issues in pedestrian stops."