#StopandFrisk:
Chicago police officers initiated stop, question and frisk encounters at a much higher rate last summer than their New York City counterparts ever did, according to a civil liberties group.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois released a report Monday saying it identified more than 250,000 Chicago stop-and-frisk encounters in which there were no arrests from May through August 2014.
And just like the former controversial New York practice, the ACLU alleges African Americans and other racial minorities in Chicago were disproportionately targeted for police stops.
The trouble with Chicago cops’ contact cards
Encounters with Chicago police officers often begin with a form called a contact card. Previously, the card was used to log everything from a voluntary conversation with a citizen to an involuntary stop of someone deemed suspicious. When police deem it necessary, that stop can result in a frisk, or pat down, too. That catch-all policy was revised in January to require contact cards only when the police interaction is an “investigatory stop,” or relating to “enforcement of the Gang and Narcotics-Related Loitering Ordinances” and not for all citizen encounters.
In New York, when a stop included a frisk, it was clearly documented; when a subsequent arrest was made, it too was noted on the contact card. That’s not always the case in Chicago. In fact, if an arrest is made, a contact card is not required.
The variance in Chicago’s record keeping has made it especially difficult to track the frequency and effectiveness of stop and frisk here. And it makes direct comparison to New York City, at this point, flawed.
Who gets stopped by Chicago cops?
African-Americans accounted for nearly three-quarters of those stopped last summer, according to the ACLU, even though they make up about a third of the city's population.
On a per capita basis, Chicago police stopped 93.6 people per 1,000 residents, or more than four times New York's peak rate of 22.9 stops per 1,000 residents, which happened during the same four-month period of 2011.
"The Chicago Police Department stops a shocking number of innocent people," said Harvey Grossman, the ACLU's legal director. "And just like New York, we see that African Americans are singled out for these searches."
People were far more likely to be stopped in predominantly black communities and blacks were more likely to be the target of stops in predominantly white neighborhoods, the study found.
For example, African-Americans accounted for 15 percent of the stops in the Jefferson Park area, even though they made up just 1 percent of its population.
The ACLU said it also found that police gave no "legally sufficient reason" for initiating many of the stops.
On about half the cards, the officers didn't state a reason for the stop, and in some cases, they stated that they stopped someone for a reason that wasn't related to suspected criminal activity.
Grossman said the information that was on the cards was woefully inadequate, and the cards didn't indicate that a person had been frisked, which the ACLU researchers can only assume happened.
And, Grossman said, many of the people who’ve been stopped say the experience was far from casual.
“They are serious events to people and they form your view of the police,” Grossman explained. “You no longer think of police as Officer Joe Friendly anymore after you get stopped and have someone shove their hands down your pockets.”
In a statement, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the department’s chief goal is to ensure that “everyone in every neighborhood enjoys the same sense of safety, and the best way to achieve that goal is working with the communities we serve.”
McCarthy added that people should only be stopped based on crime data and crime information, “nothing else.”
But the use of contact cards has dramatically increased since Supt. McCarthy started running the department in 2011.
Police say contact cards are key crime-fighting tool
The department, which has reported a significant drop in crime around the city in recent years, has made it clear that the cards are a key component of its crime-fighting strategy; that the information is crucial to track gang members and in making arrests.
Late last year, prosecutors said information from contact cards showed that two days before the 2013 shooting death of a high school honor student, Hadiya Pendleton, the two suspects were in the white Nissan that served as the getaway car.
Grossman said he's not surprised that the department relies so heavily on the stop-and-frisk policy. The superintendent spent the bulk of his career in the NYPD and he was the police chief in Newark, New Jersey, before coming to Chicago in 2011.
The policy has come under fire in both East Coast cities.
In New York, a federal judge determined the NYPD policy was sometimes discriminating against minorities and found the practice to be unconstitutional.
And in Newark, the department was placed under a federal monitor after the U.S. Department of Justice found that during a period that included McCarthy's time running the department, 75 percent of pedestrian stops were made without constitutionally adequate reasons and in the city where blacks make up 54 percent of the population, they accounted for 85 percent of those stops.
"There is no question the superintendent endorses stop and frisk...It is part of the fabric of McCarthy's policing," Grossman told reporters Monday.
In an email, a CPD spokesman Martin Maloney pointed out that the demographic breakdown of contact cards issued closely mirrors the data in the department’s case reports. (Those are descriptions of suspects identified by a third party, which is documented within incident reports.)
The same spokesman said the department has added new levels of supervision and accountability with respect to its use of contact cards. Adding that officers are now required to “document more details explaining why a contact card was issued.”
Katie O’Brien is a WBEZ reporter and producer. Follow her @katieobez.
Chicago police officers initiated stop, question and frisk encounters at a much higher rate last summer than their New York City counterparts ever did, according to a civil liberties group.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois released a report Monday saying it identified more than 250,000 Chicago stop-and-frisk encounters in which there were no arrests from May through August 2014.
And just like the former controversial New York practice, the ACLU alleges African Americans and other racial minorities in Chicago were disproportionately targeted for police stops.
The trouble with Chicago cops’ contact cards
Encounters with Chicago police officers often begin with a form called a contact card. Previously, the card was used to log everything from a voluntary conversation with a citizen to an involuntary stop of someone deemed suspicious. When police deem it necessary, that stop can result in a frisk, or pat down, too. That catch-all policy was revised in January to require contact cards only when the police interaction is an “investigatory stop,” or relating to “enforcement of the Gang and Narcotics-Related Loitering Ordinances” and not for all citizen encounters.
In New York, when a stop included a frisk, it was clearly documented; when a subsequent arrest was made, it too was noted on the contact card. That’s not always the case in Chicago. In fact, if an arrest is made, a contact card is not required.
While the contact card is used for so much police work, the details they contain can be unruly – and documentation of them near impossible for the public to obtain in volume. Where NYPD cards have easy-to-read, straightforward fields, Chicago’s system relies on a police officer’s communication skills: the pertinent information is to be transcribed in the police narrative section of the form.
Related: Poorly designed police work means the public is in the dark about stop and frisk in Chicago
The variance in Chicago’s record keeping has made it especially difficult to track the frequency and effectiveness of stop and frisk here. And it makes direct comparison to New York City, at this point, flawed.
Who gets stopped by Chicago cops?
African-Americans accounted for nearly three-quarters of those stopped last summer, according to the ACLU, even though they make up about a third of the city's population.
On a per capita basis, Chicago police stopped 93.6 people per 1,000 residents, or more than four times New York's peak rate of 22.9 stops per 1,000 residents, which happened during the same four-month period of 2011.
"The Chicago Police Department stops a shocking number of innocent people," said Harvey Grossman, the ACLU's legal director. "And just like New York, we see that African Americans are singled out for these searches."
People were far more likely to be stopped in predominantly black communities and blacks were more likely to be the target of stops in predominantly white neighborhoods, the study found.
For example, African-Americans accounted for 15 percent of the stops in the Jefferson Park area, even though they made up just 1 percent of its population.
The ACLU said it also found that police gave no "legally sufficient reason" for initiating many of the stops.
On about half the cards, the officers didn't state a reason for the stop, and in some cases, they stated that they stopped someone for a reason that wasn't related to suspected criminal activity.
Grossman said the information that was on the cards was woefully inadequate, and the cards didn't indicate that a person had been frisked, which the ACLU researchers can only assume happened.
And, Grossman said, many of the people who’ve been stopped say the experience was far from casual.
“They are serious events to people and they form your view of the police,” Grossman explained. “You no longer think of police as Officer Joe Friendly anymore after you get stopped and have someone shove their hands down your pockets.”
In a statement, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the department’s chief goal is to ensure that “everyone in every neighborhood enjoys the same sense of safety, and the best way to achieve that goal is working with the communities we serve.”
McCarthy added that people should only be stopped based on crime data and crime information, “nothing else.”
But the use of contact cards has dramatically increased since Supt. McCarthy started running the department in 2011.
Police say contact cards are key crime-fighting tool
The department, which has reported a significant drop in crime around the city in recent years, has made it clear that the cards are a key component of its crime-fighting strategy; that the information is crucial to track gang members and in making arrests.
Late last year, prosecutors said information from contact cards showed that two days before the 2013 shooting death of a high school honor student, Hadiya Pendleton, the two suspects were in the white Nissan that served as the getaway car.
Grossman said he's not surprised that the department relies so heavily on the stop-and-frisk policy. The superintendent spent the bulk of his career in the NYPD and he was the police chief in Newark, New Jersey, before coming to Chicago in 2011.
The policy has come under fire in both East Coast cities.
In New York, a federal judge determined the NYPD policy was sometimes discriminating against minorities and found the practice to be unconstitutional.
And in Newark, the department was placed under a federal monitor after the U.S. Department of Justice found that during a period that included McCarthy's time running the department, 75 percent of pedestrian stops were made without constitutionally adequate reasons and in the city where blacks make up 54 percent of the population, they accounted for 85 percent of those stops.
"There is no question the superintendent endorses stop and frisk...It is part of the fabric of McCarthy's policing," Grossman told reporters Monday.
In an email, a CPD spokesman Martin Maloney pointed out that the demographic breakdown of contact cards issued closely mirrors the data in the department’s case reports. (Those are descriptions of suspects identified by a third party, which is documented within incident reports.)
The same spokesman said the department has added new levels of supervision and accountability with respect to its use of contact cards. Adding that officers are now required to “document more details explaining why a contact card was issued.”
Katie O’Brien is a WBEZ reporter and producer. Follow her @katieobez.