Illinois police conducting more traffic stops: study

(WTVO) — New data shows Illinois police conducted more traffic stops in 2023 than the previous year.

The Department of Transportation study shows that stops increased 12%, the highest level since 2019. Four out of five police departments reported stopping more Black and Latino drivers than white drivers.

Black drivers are more likely to be stopped multiple times. They are 36 percent more likely than white drivers to be stopped two or three times, according to the study.

“Black and brown motorists are disproportionately stopped, we know the burden falls on them the most, which continues to widen this gap of distrust between the police and the communities they are supposed to serve,” Ed Yohnka, director of communications and public policy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, told The Guardian. The Sun-Times.

Another statistic from the study showed that several agencies did not submit traffic stop data to I-DOT, including many Chicago suburbs. Of the 997 active agencies, 158 did not submit traffic stop data.

“State law has required traffic stops and pedestrian stops to be reported since 2004. So the infrastructure is there, the precedent is there,” Loren Jones, director of criminal justice systems at Impact for Equity, a Chicago-area public interest law and policy center, told the Sun-Times. “I don’t think there’s any excuse for police departments not to comply with the requirement to report racial demographics.”