The worst part about this crap is that back in "the day" (so like 70yr ago and before) stops (both of pedestrians and motorists) were known to be discretionary and treated as such. If an officer exercised poor discretion that was a legitimate gripe you could air in court. Now with all the laws everyone violates all the time over the course of being a normal person and behaving normally they have a pretext with which to justify any stop they want.

I'd like to see traffic enforcement separated from crime enforcement, in the same way we do with parking enforcement, code enforcement, etc. No one really worries about these forms of law enforcement.

There's no reason a guy with a rifle in the trunk and a bullet proof vest needs to spend most of their day dealing with minor traffic code things on the highway.

I would much rather armed cops be much better trained, and much fewer in number, and only activated on the rare occasion that there is a need for them. Traffic cops should be better trained on things like headlight aiming, illegal lift kits and tire modifications, exhaust rules etc...

Most places already have plenty of laws around these things (many of them federal) but cops will never go after someone for having a dangerously lifted truck with illegal exhaust for some reason, even though they are happy to cite someone for a burnt out license plate bulb.