Скачать или смотреть WZRD News: CPD traffic stops skyrocket after ending stop-and-frisk; Black drivers pulled over most

WZRD News: 3/7/2024

Chicago police traffic stops skyrocket after CPD ends stop-and-frisk;
Black drivers are pulled over the most, data analysis shows

ByChuck Goudie and Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel, Tom Jones, and Maggie Green WLS logo
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Civil rights advocates and researchers are sounding alarms over the use of traffic stops, arguing they are being used as a method of racial profiling; the very problem that police were tasked with fixing years back.

This switch to traffic stops as a means for combating violent crimes dates to 2016.

That is when, faced with public pressure, the Chicago Police Department formally agreed to back away from another controversial tactic known as "stop-and-frisk," where people are searched on the street often with little-to-no probable cause.

Civil rights advocates argued the "stop-and-frisk" tactic disproportionately targeted people of color, and the ACLU released an in-depth analysis of its use in Chicago, which led to the formal and historical agreement by CPD.

An I-Team analysis of police records found that of more than 2 million traffic stops by Chicago police since 2016, 60% were Black drivers.

While Chicago police officials agreed to limit that stop and frisk tactic, the I-Team found the department may have replaced one old problem with a new one.

Traffic stops and searches are increasingly costing city taxpayers and still disproportionately targeting Black drivers.

"Traffic stops are sort of the new 'stop and frisk,'" said Alexandra Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois.

Vehicle stops by Chicago police have surged since 2016, according to traffic stop data that the city is required to report to state officials.

In the same year that CPD agreed to limit its use of stop-and-frisk, CPD made 187,000 traffic stops citywide.

Three years later, in 2019, those numbers had soared to 600,000 stops.

After a dip in traffic stops citywide during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the most recent figures from 2022 show CPD made more than 500,000 stops.

A 2020 CPD memo stated: "Traffic stops are needed to assist with the combat against violence. The present traffic stops are not sufficient."

"The higher the traffic stops, the less likely for shootings using firearms."

The memo and dozens of emails were obtained by the Chicago-based non-profit advocacy and research organization "Impact for Equity" through a Freedom of Information records request, and released as part of a study into CPD traffic stops citywide.

"The police are trying to look for evidence of illegally-possessed guns or drugs," said Block.

Of nearly two million vehicles stopped during a four-year period, police rarely found anything against the law.

Four out of every 1,000 vehicles stopped in Chicago since 2016 led to the discovery of something illegal.

The I-Team found that taxpayers end up footing the bill when innocent drivers are caught in the CPD-branded "traffic stop strategy."

The Chicago Police Department stated: "Fair and constitutional policing is the foundation of the Chicago Police Department's efforts to strengthen public safety and trust across the city.

Officers only conduct traffic stops when they have probable cause or reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime, including but not limited to traffic violations, has been committed, is being committed or is about to be committed.

These stops are not conducted based on race or any other protected class.

As part of our ongoing reform and consent decree compliance efforts, CPD mandates implicit bias training for all Chicago Police officers."

Source: ABC7 Chicago, February 21, 2024.

https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-polic...

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