ALLENTOWN (TNS) — A police car pulled alongside me last week as I was walking in the parking lot of an athletic center.

The officer asked if everything was OK. He said he had seen me walking through the lot for a while.

All is fine, I told him. I have two hours to kill while my son is at swim practice. I use some of that time to take a stroll and get some exercise.

He moved on and so did I.

I wasn’t offended that the officer stopped me. While I wasn’t doing anything suspicious, I could see how the officer might wonder about a guy wandering around a dark parking lot.

Was I checking out cars, looking for one with unlocked doors or a purse carelessly left on a seat? Could I not find my car? Did I lose something?

The officer was just doing his job.

I raise the point because in Pennsylvania’s two biggest cities, officers soon no longer will be permitted to do their job to the fullest extent.

Starting Feb. 24, police in Philadelphia will be prohibited from stopping vehicles for broken taillights, expired inspections and other minor infractions such as things hanging from a rearview mirror.

In a few months, police in Pittsburgh soon won’t be able to, either; officials there copied what Philadelphia did.

Allentown is Pennsylvania’s third-largest city. It would be a mistake to follow the lead of its big brothers.

Police should be able to enforce every law. Handcuffing officers in the name of “police reform” is poor policy.

Philadelphia City Council passed its “Driving Equality” law because of concerns that officers were racially profiling Black drivers and using minor violations as a reason to pull them over and fish for evidence of serious crime.

The mayor and police commissioner supported the legislation.

Racial profiling is a problem. But to water down policing and make it illegal for officers to stop anyone for certain violations, even nitpicky ones, isn’t the answer.

I might be swayed if the plan was to mail the vehicle owner a ticket or warning instead. But that’s not even going to happen in Philly, according to WHYY.

All this does is allow vehicle owners and drivers to avoid accountability.

We all have an obligation to get our cars inspected on time, keep them in good operating condition and drive them safely. Some people won’t take those obligations seriously if they know police can’t do anything about it.

Let’s face it. Nearly everyone who has been driving for a long time has committed one of these violations.

Some drivers may not know a brake light is out. They may not realize their inspection is overdue.

I’m guilty. For a while after college, I had my graduation tassel proudly dangling from my rearview mirror. And I let my registration lapse when I lived in North Carolina.

We are losing sight of the fact that officers don’t have to ticket everyone they pull over for these kinds of violations.

They can alert them about the problem, and give them a warning. If the vehicle owner fixes the problem, the officer did their job, without harming anyone.

Proponents of laws limiting vehicle stops — they exist elsewhere in the U.S. — say they reduce the potential for violent confrontations between citizens and police.

Traffic stops can be dangerous. Police have killed unarmed citizens. And motorists have killed officers.

But does that mean people who are breaking laws, even minor ones, should get away with it? No.

Proponents of these laws also say cops should have better things to do than stop a car for a burned out headlight.

In big cities, police usually are too busy to be trolling through neighborhoods looking to pull people over for minor transgressions. But should they come upon one, they should have the ability to address it.

What’s next, not allowing police to stop drivers for failing to use their turn signal? Plenty of people don’t use them and their discourtesy rarely results in serious problems. Should we let that slide, too?

Some laws are pointless. There’s no harm in hanging an air freshener or graduation tassel from your rearview mirror. But it’s illegal because it supposedly can block your vision.

Temporary vehicle registration placards must be placed on the lower left corner of your rear windshield. What’s the harm if it’s on the right side, as long as it’s visible? But that also is against the law.

If we want to reform law enforcement, let’s rescind some of these useless laws.

Then enforce the rest.

Don’t like? Don’t break it.

(Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at paul.muschick@mcall.com.)