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Should Illinois Continue Tracking Racial Bias In Police Stops?

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An Illinois study of racial profiling in police stops is set to expire in July. State lawmakers are considering whether to keep collecting data.

The 2004 , sponsored by then-state Sen. Barack Obama, requires police to keep track of the driver鈥檚 race and the outcome of the traffic stop. It was later amended to include pedestrian stops, as well as consent and dog sniff searches.

Each year, about 900 agencies report traffic stop data. It鈥檚 then by the Illinois Department of Transportation to determine whether 鈥 and to what extent 鈥 race plays a factor in police stops.

Supporters of making the practice permanent argue the information helps identify and address racial disparities in policing.

A by the ACLU of Illinois found minority drivers statewide were 1.5 times more likely than white drivers to be pulled over.

Ken Page, president of the organization鈥檚 Springfield chapter, told House lawmakers Tuesday that figure is often worse in cities.

In Springfield, Page said, black drivers made up over 40 percent of traffic stops, despite only being about 20 percent of the population.

鈥淥nce stopped, black drivers were asked for consent to search their cars nearly three times more often than white drivers, even though from 2015 to 2017 black drivers were found with contraband about 1.4 times less often,鈥 he said.

Page said monitoring police stops confirms the experience of many people of color across the state and provides an opportunity for dialogue about how to improve police-community relations.

But the effort to continue the study is facing resistance from law enforcement groups, who claim data collection is burdensome to small departments and causes the public to be more critical of police.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e being pushed further under the microscope.Their actions are being looked at in a less positive way, even though police are still the good guys,鈥 said Mark Donahue, with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. 鈥淲hat this information is perceived as doing is opening up a more viable means by which people can make false allegations against the police.鈥

Donahue said skepticism caused by the study hinders officers鈥 ability to do their jobs. He told lawmakers that pedestrian stops dropped 80 percent in Chicago after the legislation took effect.

The ACLU study, however, shows traffic stops increased 500 percent over the same period.

Donahue said that鈥檚 because police are seeing more traffic violations now that their time isn鈥檛 spent on pedestrian stops, which take more time to report because of additional data collection requirements in Chicago.

鈥淭hese people are out there for eight to ten hours. They鈥檙e going to do something. They want to be the police,鈥 Donahue said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a certain amount of work that needs to be done and they鈥檙e attempting to do it the best that they can.鈥

This argument drew criticism from some lawmakers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 sounds like what you鈥檙e saying is that officers, to kill time on their shifts, are arbitrarily increasing the volume of traffic stops they鈥檙e making,鈥 said state Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Democrat from Chicago.

There are currently no mandates on how law enforcement agencies collect their data 鈥 only on what data needs to be collected.

The original law called for IDOT to convene a committee of statisticians, police and community groups to determine best practices. That never happened, but the legislation to make the study permanent would again require a committee to meet.

The legislation is .

Copyright 2020 NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS. To see more, visit .

Dana Vollmer