The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed a federal lawsuit this summer against the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department. The lawsuit alleges that CPD targets minorities over white drivers for traffic stops with no justification for the disparity.
This lawsuit comes only eight years after the ACLU’s last lawsuit against Chicago police. In 2015, the ACLU of Illinois settled with the City of Chicago over “stop-and-frisk” style pedestrian stops, of which CPD conducted over 700,000 in 2014. After the settlement, that number dropped to just over 100,000 in 2016. However, once CPD cut down on pedestrian stops, their traffic stops skyrocketed.
There were only about 83,000 CPD traffic stops in 2014. Last year, there were 500,000. In Chicago, police pull over Black drivers at a rate four to seven times higher than white drivers. Latino drivers are stopped twice as frequently. The lawsuit alleges that the stops are discriminatory and violate several state and national civil rights and protection clauses.
“Defendants’ mass traffic stop program is simply the newest chapter in their long and sordid history of employing mass-stop policing tactics that discriminate on the basis of race and national origin, touted as a campaign to supposedly fight crime in Chicago,” states the lawsuit.
Five Residents Pulled Over 50 Times in the Past Five Years
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Chicago residents, all of whom are people of color. Their names are José Almanza, Jacquez Beasley, Mahari Bell, Eric Wilkins, and Essence Jefferson. Collectively, Chicago police pulled these five residents over a total of 50 times since 2017. Out of all of those stops, only one led to an arrest. And the charges from that arrest were dropped and expunged.
Almanza, a community activist from Little Village, was stopped five times in 2021, including one time when officers claimed to smell marijuana in his car and searched the vehicle only to find nothing.
“It’s always this sense that we’re in the wrong because of where we live, we’re in the wrong because of what we look like. It’s not surprising there is mistrust between community members and the police,” Almanza told the Chicago Sun-Times.
When Almanza went to request public records of these traffic stops, the police department didn’t have any. This is despite the fact that state law requires documentation of all traffic stops.
Police stopped Jefferson, a 29-year-old resident from Bronzeville, at least 14 times since 2018. In one instance, she was returning a rental car when police stopped her, handcuffed her, and threw her against a police SUV. The altercation left her with an injured arm. Later, police dismissed the misdemeanor charges filed against her.
“The experiences of these five drivers demonstrate how policies by the City and the CPD have sown fear and distrust among Black and Latino residents,” said Alexandra Block, an attorney for the ACLU of Illinois.
Targeted Traffic Stops
According to a report from the team overseeing CPD reforms, Black Chicagoans were disproportionately pulled over by officers in 2018 and 2019. They were nine times more likely to be stopped than white Chicagoans. Although officers were 29% more likely to find drugs or weapons if they searched someone who is white.
Police were three times more likely to stop Latinos than white Chicagoans. This according to a report that examined approximately 300,000 stops and searches by Chicago Police officers.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will soon select the next commissioner of CPD. He recently narrowed his choices down to three candidates: Angel Novalez, Shon Barnes, and Larry Snelling. Whoever Johnson chooses, they will have a lot of work to do in order to heal the long reputation of corruption in CPD and slowly win back the trust of the people of Chicago.
Written by Seth Herlinger
Sources:
Block Club Chicago: 5 Black, Latino Drivers Sue Chicago Police After Cops Stop Them More Than 50 Times In 6 Years
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago’s Black, Latino drivers targets of racially biased traffic stops, ACLU lawsuit alleges
WTTW: Black Chicagoans 9 Times More Likely to Be Stopped by Chicago Police: Federal Court Monitor
Top and featured image courtesy of Seth Herlinger
Inset image courtesy of Inventorchris‘ Flickr page – Creative Commons License
