In Chicago, it was revealed in a report by BPI and the Free2Move Coalition that from 2015 to 2021, the average Black Chicago driver was six times more likely to be stopped than the average White driver. It also reported that Latino drivers were twice as likely to be stopped than White drivers.
Loren Jones, staff attorney at Business and Professional People for the Public Interest and member of the Free2Move Coalition, spoke about how the disproportionate number of stops affects Black and Latino communities.
“The stops that we looked at for this report are based entirely on the stops that they’re (police are) making because they saw a traffic violation and then decided to continue to investigate for signs of criminal activity,” Loren Jones said. “This needle-in-a-haystack approach is leading to immense harm in communities around Chicago.
WTTW who reported on the matter reached out to the Chicago Police Department and asked them to participate in a panel discussion on their “Chicago Tonight” show, which they declined. However, they did release a statement which in part read:
“Officers only conduct traffic stops when they have probable cause or reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed. These stops are not conducted based on race. Additionally, as part of our ongoing reform and consent decree compliance efforts, CPD mandates implicit bias training for all Chicago Police officers.”
Well, it seems that the police are not pulling Blacks over because of their race, but because they think they have committed a crime or are about to commit a crime. Yeah, I guess it makes sense now.