Black or Latinx drivers are more likely to be pulled over by the police than their White counterparts in random traffic stops. David Price, wanting to reduce the casualties during these altercations, created the ‘Safety Pouch’ so Black drivers and even the police can feel safer during traffic stops.
A study by Stanford University in 2019 confirmed that out of 100 million stops, Black and Latinx drivers were stopped and frisked for far less evidence than White drivers.
Price is a 19-year-old sophomore at Loyola University and as part of a project to design something that could bring about societal change, he created the Safety Pouch, an idea he had conceived three years prior to the project.
The young entrepreneur unearthed his skills in an Introduction to Entrepreneurship class in the fall of 2019 when his professor told students to “envision a product that might somehow bring about societal change.”
As an African American, it is apparent that things could get messy with the police during routine traffic stops. So, when Price first got his driver’s license at age 16, his parents, like most Black parents do with their children, had the infamous “talk” with him on how he should handle himself when stopped by an officer.
“The talk started getting more and more serious as I came to driving age,” Price said. “When I turned 16 and I got my driver’s license and they got me my car and they sat me down and had to talk with me, it was just much more in-depth. There was no sugar-coating involved.”
Katina Price, David’s mother, who is a social worker, told her son that “You may mistakenly grab something, like ‘Oh, I forgot to get something, and the police can misread your actions and take it for something else, and react in a different way that you might not be prepared to deal with.”
According to Price, the inspiration for the design is very relevant today even though it was designed before police brutality protests swept the U.S. The bright orange pouch has a transparent film and four card-sized sleeves that drivers can store essential documents such as license, insurance, and car documents.
It can easily be clipped onto a vehicle’s sun visor or on the window so the driver’s hands are visible to the officers during a stop. Price worked with his professor, a designer, and several police officers to come out with the final product.
“I figured people would respond that way because of what the product was and what it was going to solve,” Price said. “But I never thought it would have gained as much ground as it has. I didn’t think so many people would be interested in it.”
Tina Knowles, T.I., Erykah Badu and other celebrities have reached out to Price commending him on his innovative design that will help mitigate the horrific experiences Black drivers encounter on the daily with officers.
“My goal with The Safety Pouch is to hopefully use it to kind of help build trust back up,” he said. “Just a little bit to help bring unification back … I think how a lot of things are portrayed in the media is not necessarily how it really is.”
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of Black adults have reported being in circumstances where people were suspicious of them because of their race or ethnicity.
“So, my goal is to hopefully just show more of a human side of how we can solve the problem versus just adding fuel to the fire,” Price said.
