RACIAL PROFILING

Number 5 - November 2009

In her 2009 Legislative Report, State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie (25th District), indicated that racial profiling continues to be a problem as police stop drivers for traffic violations. In 2003 the state legislature passed the Illinois Racial Profiling Law requiring police to keep track of certain information during traffic stops. The Law became effective January 1, 2004.

Credit for this legislation may be attributed to President Obama who in 2002 was a member of the Illinois General Assembly. As a state senator Barack Obama took the first steps to address the insidious problem of discriminatory law enforcement. He proposed legislation that mandated the collection of data about the race and ethnicity of every motorist stopped by Illinois police.

Officers are required to record and send data to the Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT). The information is analyzed by staff at Northwestern University. The data collected includes:

1. The name, address, gender, and the officer’s subjective determination of the race of the person stopped: Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Native American/ Alaskan Native, or Asian/Pacific Islander.
2. Alleged traffic violation that led to the stop of the motorist.
3. The make and year of the vehicle stopped.
4. The date and time of the stop.
5. The location of the stop.
6. Whether or not a search contemporaneous to the stop was conducted of the vehicle, driver, passenger, and if so whether it was with consent by other means.
7. The name and badge number of the issuing officer.

Collected data show that year after year in all parts of the State of Illinois a driver of color is more likely to be stopped for a routine traffic violation than a white driver. Just released data for the calendar year 2008 (the latest statistics available) demonstrate that African-American drivers in Illinois are 25 percent more likely to be stopped and Hispanic drivers are 10 percent more likely to be stopped than white drivers.

The data also reveals that once stopped people of color are more likely to be asked by the police for “consent” to search their vehicles. Searches are performed at the officer’s discretion; no wrong doing or suspicion of wrong doing is required. Statistics reveal that African-Americans are asked and searched twice as often as whites. Hispanics are four times as likely to be asked and searched. A consultant hired by the Illinois State Police found “no innocent explanation” for different treatment of minorities and whites.

One other significant fact found by the data actually shows that “police are more likely to find contraband in the smaller percentage of white motorists they search, compared with the higher percentage of minority motorists searched.

The government claims these searches are an important tool for law enforcement. Data again reveals that for calendar year 2007, for example, no significant amount of drugs was found in the police searches.

The data has convinced state legislators to extend the Illinois Racial Profiling Law. Governor Quinn has not addressed the biased profiling by the State Police. He has the authority to act without legislation to bar such searches.

While we honor and are thankful for those who enforce laws that make our streets and highways safe, sometimes even at the risk of their own lives, it is clear that the racism that permeates society influences the way these laws are enforced. Racial profiling subjects people of color to humiliating treatment.

The Christian Church in Illinois and Wisconsin might consider joining the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Operation PUSH, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and other civil rights organizations calling on State Police to cease using “consent searches.”

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TEAM MEMBERS:
Dwight Bailey, Chair
Karon Alexader, Britttany Barber, Darron Bowden, Gloria Carey-Branch, Minta Coburn, Ann Marie Coleman, Don Coleman, Carol Josefowski, Wookbin Moh, Trina Ruffin, Leila Ward.