Free2Move Coalition advocates for fairer traffic enforcement, aiming to reduce racial disparity in traffic stops.
The Free2Move Coalition, a coalition that advocates for fairer and safer traffic management in Chicago, is seeking to reduce police involvement in traffic enforcement and end the targeting of people of color and low-income communities – an issue all too familiar with West Side residents.
The numbers illustrate a stark picture. According to Free2Move’s research from 2015 through 2022, Black drivers in the 15th police district are 2.3 times more likely to get stopped than white drivers, and Latino drivers are 1.2 times more likely than white ones.
That contrasts with the estimated population of the 15th police district at 71.9% Black people, 18.75% Latino, 8.71% white and 0.62% Asian, the data shows.
Looking deeper, that shows that Black drivers were stopped 83.47% of the time, which is 11.54% higher than the overall Black population, while white drivers were stopped 4.41%, which is less than half of the overall white drivers’ population.
More alarmingly, the group’s updated 2022 report says that citywide traffic stops rose by 35% from 2021 to 2022, averaging more than 1,400 per day.
Representatives from the Chicago Police Department could not be reached for comment.
Amy Thompson, staff counsel at Impact for Equity, a coalition member, said that the Austin area has the fourth-largest amount of traffic stops in Chicago. More than 6% of traffic stops were made in Austin, although based on the 2020 census, the neighborhood itself makes up 3.52% of Chicago’s population.
She said that Austin is targeted by police, adding that one of the main incentives for the stops is that they hope to find crime evidence without any reason. They ask to search the car, but many people, especially Black and Latino, feel coerced to agree because of instances where traffic stops ended with police brutality toward people of color.
“When you have a police officer who is carrying a weapon, that kind of show of authority can be incredibly intimidating,” Thompson said. “We’ve seen time and again in the news where a traffic stop really escalated and resulted in the killing of a Black or Brown person.”
Free2Move has a list of specific demands that include ending pretextual and bike stops, suspicionless searches, jaywalking enforcement and transit fare evasion criminalization.
They also want to lower the fines for traffic violations and use restorative justice instead, as well as more transparency and accountability in traffic data and policies. The coalition urges the city to invest in infrastructure and education for traffic safety and to remove police from the Vision Zero Plan, a citywide initiative aimed at completely eradicating fatalities and serious injuries from traffic accidents. They say they are underpinned by a strong commitment to human life, safety, and equitable community engagement.
According to Thompson, traffic stops are a waste of resources and officers’ work hours when they could have been solving crimes.
Free2Move wants to create three main policies to end pretextual traffic stops, limit stops for low-level offenses, and eliminate consent searches during traffic stops.
Changes to the policy can be implemented either by a civilian oversight board, the City Council, or the newly appointed Chicago Police Superintendent, Larry Snelling.
