Recent analysis of Chicago Police Department Radio data found that more than a third of traffic stops went unreported, a violation of Illinois law. That equates to 200,000 undocumented stops made last year that were hidden from regulators.
CPD seems to be Use a stop and frisk warrant instead of a stop and frisk warrant. The department reached an agreement with the ACLU to move away from stop and frisk in 2016 following the Chicago police killing of teenager Laquan McDonald. The ACLU found that stop and frisk disproportionately targeted black Chicagoans and violated their Constitutional rights. The CPD used traffic stops to continue aggressive police tactics because the department could no longer stop pedestrians. This culminated in Five plainclothes police officers shot Dexter Reed 13 times, killed him shortly after he was stopped by police for not wearing a seat belt.
The increase in traffic stops in black neighborhoods is only known through the Illinois Traffic Stop Study. A 2003 law requires police to report every traffic stop to the Illinois Department of Transportation, along with details like the driver’s race and the reason for the stop. Oversight boards then use that data to uncover disparities, such as black drivers being seven times more likely to be stopped by the CPD.
Bolts and Injustice Watch have collected records That contradicts what CPD reports to regulators. The department uses internal radio dispatch data to record stops, not paperwork sent to the state. Bolts reported:
Our analysis of radio dispatch data shows that last year there were nearly 200,000 traffic stops that were not properly recorded or reported to the state.
In fact, traffic stops have dropped since the start of 2023, but not as much as state data suggests. According to publicly reported data, Chicago police made about 74,000 fewer stops from January to April, down 35 percent from the same period last year. But police dispatch data shows the actual drop in stops was less than 59,000.
The reason behind the unreported stop seems clear: A police officer unable to take responsibility for something if no one outside the department knows about it.
In April, the Chicago Police Chief asked a federal judge to oversee the police department’s consent decree. additional traffic stops under court jurisdiction. What does it mean if the police can falsify data to make themselves look better?
