CHICAGO (CBS) — Black people in Chicago are far more likely to be stopped by police and be subject to use of force by officers after those stops, according to a new report from the city’s top watchdog.
An analysis by the Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) found not only are Black people overwhelmingly stopped more often by police and subjected to use of force, but those disparities happen in every district of the Chicago Police Department, regardless of the district’s racial makeup.
The inspector general’s office analyzed nearly 2 ½ years of police stops and use-of-force incidents from Oct. 17, 2017, through Feb. 28, 2020, and found “an overwhelming disparity in the rates at which Black and non-Black people were stopped by the police.”
For example in the 18th (Near North) District just north of downtown, the population is only 7.9% black, but 73.5% of investigatory stops during that time targeted Black people. Even in overwhelmingly Black police districts, Black people are still targeted at disproportionately high rates, such as in the 6th (Gresham) district on the South Side, where the population is 95.9% black, and 97.2% of investigatory stops targeted Black people.
“Black people were overwhelmingly disproportionately stopped by CPD, regardless of the demographic composition and crime level in the district of the stop,” the report stated. “Black people were disproportionately subjected to force, regardless of district demographic composition and district crime level.”
Overall, Black people make up approximately 30% of the city’s population, but made up 68% of investigatory stops by police, and 84% of use of force incidents after investigatory stops during that time.
“Black people were far more likely to be stopped by the police than non-Black people in investigatory stops and traffic stops. This result was consistent across CPD Districts, and the disparity cannot be explained entirely by different patterns of officer behavior in the Districts that CPD defines as ‘high crime’ Districts,” the OIG report stated. “Once stopped in an investigatory stop or traffic stop, Black people were more likely than non-Black people to face use of force. This result was also consistent across CPD Districts.”
During investigatory stops, Black people also were subjected to a body search or pat-down 1.5 times more often than non-Black people, and their vehicles were searched 3.3 times more often than White drivers’ cars, and 1.6 times more often than all non-Black drivers’ vehicles.
The report also found Hispanic people are more likely to face the use of deadly force in police use-of-force incidents than non-Hispanic people, while White people almost never face higher-level use of force then non-White people.
The OIG’s findings are no surprise, given CPD is already facing court-ordered reforms in the wake of a 2016 Justice Department report that found systemic abuses by the Chicago Police Department against minorities, including officers routinely using excessive force against African Americans and Hispanics.
A court-ordered consent decree requires CPD to review use of force policies every year, track foot pursuits, and document every time an officer points a gun at someone.
Meantime, the CBS 2 Investigators also have documented how police often fail to activate their body cameras during stops, especially when it’s a person of color being stopped.
The OIG report was only an evaluation of CPD data, so did not include any recommendations for further reforms at CPD.
“OIG hopes this report will stand as an authoritative factual foundation for continued efforts to understand the root causes of disparities in CPD’s use of force and to minimize harms stemming from CPD’s use of force,” the report stated.
Nonetheless, the report was sent to the Chicago Police Department so it could be used to improve their practices regarding investigatory stops and use of force.
In a response included in the report, CPD said it “has made great strides in Use of Force and Procedural Justice training and has revised numerous policies including, but not limited to, the entire Use of Force suite of orders.”
“In fact, the Department has achieved preliminary compliance on the use of force paragraphs in the Consent Decree,” CPD said in its response