Executive Summary
Each day, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers make over one thousand traffic stops around Chicago. Data indicates that most of these stops are made under the pretense of a minor traffic violation when the true purpose is to fish for evidence of a crime, despite there being no evidence that a crime has been committed. Repeated analyses show that these traffic stops are not improving traffic or public safety. Instead, pretextual traffic stops are disproportionately impacting Chicago’s Black and Latine drivers and communities and wasting our City’s resources.
Our earlier reports show CPD has dramatically increased their use of racially discriminatory traffic stops since 2015 despite clear evidence showing this strategy rarely leads to arrests or discovery of weapons or drugs. This Traffic Stops Data Report tracks that trend into 2023 using newly obtained 2023 traffic stop data, and it shines a light on CPD’s new Police Superintendent’s first quarter as the head of the Department.
