STUDY: POLICE TARGET MINORITIES

SPRINGFIELD - Black and Hispanic drivers in large downstate cities
are pulled over by police at a rate that far exceeds their share of
the local population, according to an analysis of data from more than
2 million traffic stops last year.

Springfield had the biggest gap: 42 percent of its traffic stops
involved minorities even though its minority population is only 16
percent. It was followed by cities such as Peoria, Rockford and Joliet.

An Associated Press analysis of the traffic study also found that
after being pulled over, minorities were more likely to be ticketed
than white drivers. And minority drivers were more likely to have
their cars searched and to be found with drugs and weapons, the numbers show.

Some police departments contend the data is flawed and doesn't paint
an accurate picture of their work.

But minority leaders say the results show police sometimes target minorities.

"I really don't need statistics to tell me racial profiling is an
issue or that it exists," said state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago. "I
think the statistics serve more than the purpose of identifying
whether a problem exists. It helps hopefully to target the problem."

The study was approved in 2003 at the urging of minority groups and
lawmakers who complained that too many people were being pulled over
simply for "driving while black" or Hispanic.

For instance, state Sen. James Meeks, a black Chicago independent and
pastor of a large church, said he was stopped by Chicago police for a
trivial offense Wednesday night and ended up with an officer's gun
pointed at him. Meeks said if he could be treated so poorly, "I know
the average young black person on the street doesn't stand a chance."
Police are investigating the incident.

State lawmakers required every police department - about 1,000
agencies - to record the details of all 2004 traffic stops and submit
them to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Almost 2.5 million stops later, the results released this month offer
something for both sides of the debate.

The governor and minority lawmakers are calling for further studies
and new requirements for police handling traffic stops. Meanwhile,
police argue the figures show aggressive work in high-crime areas,
not a pattern of racial profiling.

Statewide, 33 percent of people pulled over were minorities -
slightly higher than the estimated 28 percent of Illinois drivers who
are minorities, a category that mostly includes blacks and Hispanics
but also any nonwhite drivers.

Among departments stopping more than 10,000 drivers, the gap between
the minority population and traffic stops was bigger in mid-sized
cities such as Springfield, Peoria, Joliet and Rockford than in
Chicago and its suburbs.

Chicago-area police pulled over far more minorities overall, but the
percentage came closer to matching the percentage of minorities in
the local population. For instance, 72 percent of drivers stopped by
Chicago police were minorities, and the city's minority population is
62 percent - still a gap, but much smaller than the ones seen downstate.

But once a stop occurred, minority drivers seemed to fare better in
big downstate cities than in the Chicago area.

For example, in Springfield, Peoria and Joliet, minority drivers were
no more likely - and in some cases less likely - to get a ticket than
their white counterparts. Meanwhile, police in some Chicago suburbs
gave tickets more often to minorities than to whites. In some cases,
the imbalance was nearly 10 percentage points.

Statewide, police ticketed nearly seven of every 10 minority drivers
they stopped, but only six of every 10 white drivers. Problems with
this category of data make exact percentages uncertain.

Both whites and minorities usually were pulled over for moving
violations such as speeding, but police stopped minorities for
license and registration violations more frequently than whites.

The numbers showed police infrequently searched the vehicles of
people they stopped. Officers also rarely found drugs and weapons.
But minorities were much more likely than whites to be searched and
to be found with contraband.

Only 5 percent of white drivers had their vehicles searched, while 14
percent of minority-driven vehicles were searched. Drugs and weapons
were found in more than 20 percent of stops involving minorities,
compared to about 5 percent for white drivers.

But experts and police warn the results can be misleading.

Police statewide say the high proportions of minority stops are not
because of racial profiling, but the result of aggressive police work
in high-crime areas, which consist of more minorities.

"That can definitely skew the numbers one way or the other," said
Laimutis "Limey" Nargelenas of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of
Police. "If you've got more police presence . . . of course, there's
going to be more stops there."

Both advocates and critics see problems with the study.

Alexander Weiss, a Northwestern University professor who oversaw the
study, said the data on drugs and weapons found during traffic stops
was optional, so some agencies reported nothing. He also noted a
computer glitch affected the reliability of data on tickets versus
warnings. The AP analysis confirmed the disparity of minorities being
ticketed more often than whites by looking at data from larger
departments that was not affected by the glitch.

Several agencies complained the U.S. Census data used to compute
communities' minority populations was inaccurate.

"How do you know when a car's coming at you and you clock them for
speeding what's going to be in it?" said John Loy, chief deputy for
the Effingham County Sheriff's Department. "It's going to throw an
inappropriate wrench in the whole thing."