ACLU raises concerns over CPD traffic stop data

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — New data shows Chicago Police Officers made more than half a million traffic stops last year, and the ACLU of Illinois says their analysis of the data shows a recurring pattern.

“What we're seeing is a continued disproportionate number of stops of Black and brown drivers,” Ed Yohnka with the ACLU of Illinois said.

The data the ACLU analyzed was provided to IDOT by the Chicago Police Department. Yohnka said it showed that of the more than 535,000 traffic stops, Black drivers were stopped 3.75 times more often than white drivers and Latino drivers were stopped 2.73 times more often than white drivers.

“These disparities have existed year, over year, over year since this data first began to be collected and CPD has never ever addressed that problem even as we see the number of stops really escalate.”

Yohnka adds that last year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against CPD to end what the organization views as racially motivated traffic stops.

“People have looked at that data by district over the years, and what they found is that this disproportionate stops of Black or Latino drivers happens whether it's in Black neighborhoods, Latino neighborhoods or predominantly white neighborhoods,” Yohnkas said.

“We filed a lawsuit last year against CPD for this traffic stop program, and one of things that we've seen with our clients, is that they are stopped repeatedly.”

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