Illinois Traffic Stop Data Shows Racial Disparity
By Jaylene Rodriguez
Dave Thomas, a 25-year-old teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, recalled being pulled over in Waukegan, Illinois while being home for break in June of 2015. “The officers asked us for identification, and as I’m going to get my license they pull their firearms on us, and they begin to start laughing,” he said.
“ This was 2015, I was home from college. This is during the summer, so I had just finished up my freshman year, I was going up 10th Street, headed towards the expressway. They stopped me right before I got on and said they had been following me and that I was speeding.”
“There were 2 squad cars, 4 officers surrounding with their firearms pointed at us. So I freeze, and I’m thinking, what’s going on here and they begin to start laughing. It was a joke to them, and I know I wasn’t speeding, but when you’re a black man and you get pulled over by the cops, you’re taught not to say anything.”
According to data pulled from the Illinois Traffic and Pedestrian Stop Study annual report, police are pulling over drivers more frequently in comparison to previous years.
More notably, these traffic stops show a large racial disparity; Chicago police stopped more than 204,000 Black drivers in 2020, compared to just over 35,000 white drivers.
A further analysis of the data shared by the Illinois Department of Transportation reveals that Black drivers are estimated to represent 13.9% of licensed drivers in the state, yet constitute more than 38% of all traffic stops.
The discrepancy is increasingly evident when surveying data from previous reports. In 2019, Chicago Police officers pulled over 598,332 drivers, more than 1,600 traffic stops a day. Black drivers accounted for 368,332 of those stops, meaning more than six in 10 of all traffic stops citywide.
In 2015, the total number of traffic stops conducted by CPD was around 85,000. Compare that to the numbers in 2020 and that shows about a 30% increase in just five years.
In 2020, Black drivers were more than 2.7 times likely to be stopped for a traffic offense than white drivers in Illinois. In Chicago, that number is higher, with Black drivers being seven times more likely to be pulled over.
The Chicago Police Department denies that the unequal number of traffic stops involving Black drivers is due to racial bias. The department claims their intention is to curtail criminal activity, and that the disproportionate number of Black residents stopped by cops isn’t an issue of racial targeting but “a matter of targeting violence.”
However, the hit rate, or the percentage of vehicles that are pulled over that result in an arrest or in the finding of drugs or weapons for Black drivers is extremely low in comparison to white drivers. In Chicago’s 3rd District, the city’s Grand Crossing neighborhood, per 100 drivers, Black drivers were three times more likely to be pulled over. Yet the hit rate was around 14% and for white drivers the rate was 23%.
This discrepancy is witnessed across all police districts, and most traffic stops do not result in the siege of guns or drugs, and rarely end in traffic citations as Dave Thomas shares, “The officers didn’t issue a ticket or anything, they just took off after.”
“In theory, they’re searching for weapons and drugs, but they have the ability to in essence, to go on some fishing expeditions by pulling over an assortment of vehicles, they’re seeing things that create suspicion in their mind” said Professor William McCarty, a Criminology, Law, and Justice professor and director of the Center for Research in Law and Justice at the University of Illinois.
“There’s a very low threshold that police need to be able to pull over a car.”
If officers then have an increased standard, or probable cause, they can take further actions such as searching the vehicle or asking all occupants to get out, presumably to search for guns or drugs or anything of that matter.
The ACLU of Illinois analyzed the number of traffic stops from data police departments are required to report to the state and it’s clear that this disparity carries into other communities in Illinois:
- Aurora: Black drivers are 11.5 times more likely to be stopped by police;
- Bloomington: Black drivers are 6.2 times more likely to be stopped by police;
- Elgin: Black drivers are 7.8 times more likely to be stopped by police;
- Urbana: Black drivers are more than 5.1 times more likely to be stopped by police; and,
- Waukegan: Black drivers are 28 times more likely to be stopped by police.
“When we see that those hit rates are very low, that’s especially when we ask those important questions about whether this is a good utilization of police resources and power,” McCarty said. “Because, again, if they’re not finding drugs, and they’re not finding weapons, it reinforces this notion that those stops are done, not necessarily for any sort of verifiable reason, but that they’re done predominantly because of just suspicion.”
The over-policing in the city’s West and South side neighborhoods exposes an impending problem, the mistrust between the police and communities. The racial disparity in joint with the absence of traffic citations pushes further dialogue on if these stops are being used for pretextual reasons. There’s no real justification for the traffic stop, and the harassment continues.
As of 2021, police officers nationwide have killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not in possession of a weapon or in pursuit of a crime — a rate of more than one a week. This data exposing the grave reality of racial profiling and traffic stops.
The balance of power so evident in racial profiling can lead to a vicious cycle of mistrust and violence within communities.
Thomas comments on his distress, “I mean around that time when I got pulled over. I was really scared for my life, I was thinking I could be on the news, I might be the next one, especially after they pulled their firearms out.”
“At the end of the day, I still have to drive around.” He says, “I’m just always aware, anytime I see the police, I’m on edge even if I’m not doing anything and I have nothing on me, I remain calm.”
McCarty discusses the groundwork needed to alleviate the issue. “The police have a great responsibility in this, however, the police aren’t the only public institution or entity that kind of needs to respond to the issues and needs of people.”
“Trying to integrate the police with social workers and people who are experts in domestic violence and so forth,” he said. “And mental health experts, for example, as ways to again, have a more multifaceted response, and not necessarily see the police department is the only sort of element to the equation.
“There’s an old expression for those of us that study policing, that oftentimes police culture eats policy for lunch. Meaning, changes in policy, yes, are good things, but sometimes you have a prevailing culture in policing where the policy really doesn’t matter.
“What matters is the culture in the department with regards to what officers feel they should or shouldn’t be doing. And oftentimes, changes in policy take a long, long time to actually come to fruition if the culture doesn’t really support that change.”
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Learn more
You can access annual Illinois Traffic and Pedestrian Stop Studies dating back to 2004, here.
