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In Illinois Department of Transportation data compiled by the
American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, there was a 12%
increase in traffic stops last year from 2022.
“Police in Illinois conducted another 200,000 additional stops
in 2023 compared with 2022, and to put that in a finer form, it
means there are 500 additional stops happening every single
day,” said Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois director of
Communications.
Yohnka adds that the data showed Black and Latino drivers were
stopped at higher rates than white drivers in almost all areas
of the state.
In Kankakee, police stopped Black drivers at a rate 5.5 times
higher than white drivers; Peoria police stopped Black drivers
5.4 times more often than white drivers and Latino motorists
were nearly 2 times more likely to be stopped than white
drivers; and in Springfield, Black motorists were 5.7 times more
likely to be stopped than white drivers.
New this year, IDOT analyzed data of individual drivers who were
stopped multiple times in 2023, finding that Black drivers were
about three times more likely to be stopped a total of two to 10
times, and 9 times more likely to be stopped more than 10 times
compared to white drivers who were stopped.
“With 20 years of data reflecting ongoing racial and ethnic
disparities in traffic stops, localities in Illinois can no
longer ignore this problem. Police departments’ refusal to
remedy these unjustified disparities amounts to intentional
discrimination,” said Alexandra Block, director of the Criminal
Legal System and Policing Project at the ACLU of Illinois. “This
reality should cause public officials at the state and local
level to convene a public discussion about how to fix the
persistent biases in traffic stops.”
The ACLU reports the numbers are based on data that every law
enforcement agency in the state is supposed to report annually,
although about 20% of police agencies failed to submit the
required data for 2023.
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