On a Saturday night in late September, University of Missouri senior Anna Joplin and three of her roommates stepped out of an Uber in downtown Columbia, ready for a night out. Their driver pulled over near a stop sign and told them to walk in front of the car for safety. As they crossed, Joplin said, an officer standing across the street called out, telling them they were being stopped for jaywalking.
Since April, the Columbia Police Department has issued 58 jaywalking citations, including 43 since Sept. 5. The MU Police Department recorded six additional pedestrian violations in October. Police, who are under pressure to improve public safety after a shooting in late September that killed a Stephens College student, say enforcement of minor offenses such as pedestrian violations helps prevent larger crimes.
“We’ve been issuing more jaywalking citations as a part of being more proactive in law enforcement to try and prevent larger, possibly more violent incidents. There’s plenty of national data to back up that this approach works,” Columbia police spokesperson Colin Imoff said in an email. “The concentration has been in the downtown area, specifically on weekends, because that’s where we’ve seen the biggest issues with more serious incidents.” tncms-asset)ecd3463c-b40b-40f4-a641-c8c192efa2f6[0](/tncms-asset)
Joplin is among dozens of people who have experienced the increased police enforcement of jaywalking laws.
“We were crossing right in front of the car, and suddenly we were told we were being arrested,” Joplin said. “It didn’t make sense.” Moments later, she realized what was happening: They were being cited for jaywalking.
Spike in enforcement
According to Columbia Police Department records obtained by the Missourian, there were at least 58 citations for “pedestrian crossing in prohibited locations” between April 6 and Oct. 16. Most were handed out downtown, many within minutes of each other on weekend nights. A review of the data shows that of the jaywalking citations, 38 were issued to white pedestrians, 12 to Black pedestrians and eight did not list race. Most of those cited were between 19 and 23 years old. Nearly all citations were issued downtown on weekend nights, concentrated at intersections along Broadway and Ninth and Cherry streets. MU police have conducted joint weekend patrols with city police and also recorded six pedestrian-related violations in October, all near Ninth and Broadway or Ninth and Cherry, busy intersections at the center of the downtown nightlife district.
Proactive enforcement
MU police said the department’s approach is part of a broader effort to prevent larger or more dangerous incidents downtown.
The sharp increase in citations came after a June 8 shooting in the 800 block of East Walnut Street, prompting Columbia police to implement a new downtown safety initiative. Before September, the department had issued only 15 jaywalking tickets since April: two in April, three in July, and 10 in August. MU police declined an interview request but provided a statement that said the six October citations were part of a coordinated effort with Columbia police.
“As part of President Choi’s ongoing commitment to supporting downtown safety, these violations were observed during a joint enforcement operation with the Columbia Police Department,” Nicholas Tietsort, MU police spokesperson, said in an email referring to UM System President Mun Choi.
More student testimonies
Joplin said two of the four students in her group received citations that night. She said she didn’t understand why the others were let go, as the police officer said, “You guys got off lucky. You guys are good to go.” The officers who stopped Joplin and her friends did not give them much explanation as they wrote them a ticket and told them they would have to pay a fine.
“No one explained what we were supposed to do next,” Joplin said. “They hadn’t even filed the tickets yet. It’s such a waste of everyone’s time.”
She said the incident happened around 8:30 p.m. Sept. 16, after the Mizzou-Kansas football game.
“We were sober, crossing carefully,” Joplin said. “I get if people are drunk and running into traffic, but that wasn’t us.”
Robbie Criswell, a first-year master’s student in health care administration, had a similar experience Oct. 16. After leaving a concert at the Missouri Theatre around 10:30 p.m., Criswell said, he and his friends crossed near Shakespeare’s Pizza when police pulled them over.
“The roads are empty, so obviously we cross the street, and a couple of police cars pull up next to us,” Criswell said.
The officer told them they were being detained for jaywalking, he said. What struck Criswell most was the selective enforcement. While police processed his group’s IDs, another group crossed the street illegally about 75 feet behind them.
“We pointed it out. They just kind of were like, ‘Oh, we’re busy,’” Criswell said.
Criswell said he understands the city’s desire to make downtown safer after the Sept. 28 shooting, but he questions whether jaywalking tickets are the right approach. “I can understand a warning,” Criswell said. “However, ... we didn’t have any kind of bad interaction with the police. There was nothing confrontational happening. They had the option to let us off with a warning, and instead they chose to fine us. I think that’s a little overkill.”
Broader trend
The citations in Columbia mirror national debates over pedestrian policing.
Cities such as Kansas City and Los Angeles have scaled back or repealed jaywalking laws in recent years, arguing that such citations disproportionately burden young people.
Mike McGinn, executive director of America Walks, a nonprofit pedestrian advocacy group, said jaywalking enforcement is often used as a pretext for stops that have nothing to do with safety.
“The data that is out there shows it’s almost always a pretext to stop young Black men, to try to investigate them for other crimes, or just a reason for a stop to see what they can generate,” McGinn said.
McGinn also questioned whether jaywalking tickets actually improve pedestrian safety. “There’s very little evidence that it actually improves safety,” McGinn said. “The fear of being run over by a large vehicle is the primary deterrent to people not entering the street.”
Instead, McGinn said the issue is rooted in street design, not pedestrian behavior. “It’s 100% a design issue,” McGinn said. “When you get to speeds over about 20 to 25 miles an hour, the driver’s ability to track and understand the presence of people on foot really goes down, and their ability to react in time and stop goes down as well.”
He pointed to studies showing that at 20 miles per hour, about 90% of drivers stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. At 30 miles per hour, about 90% do not stop.
“If you really want safety to be durable, focusing on design and engineering really matters,” McGinn said. ”Design solutions include narrower lanes, curb bulbs, street trees, tighter corners, and shorter distances between crosswalks.” McGinn also stressed how cities need to design streets that are safe to cross.
“We’re asking people; it’s not human nature to walk a half-mile to a crosswalk and a half-mile back to cross the street if the person perceives it might be safe enough,” McGinn said. “We really should be designing streets that are safe to cross. Tickets just aren’t really going to increase safety that much.”
What counts as jaywalking?
Columbia’s jaywalking ordinance prohibits “pedestrian crossing in prohibited locations,” including crossing outside a marked crosswalk between adjacent intersections with traffic signals, failing to yield to vehicles when crossing outside a crosswalk, and walking into a roadway where traffic is not controlled by signals.
A typical fine costs about $90, though court costs can raise the total to around $120, according to the Columbia Municipal Court’s published fine schedule.
