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A study has revealed that Blacks in Chicago are more likely to be pulled over in the city city on routine stops, but whites are more likely to be carrying contraband. The American Civil Liberties Union’s Illinois chapter conducted the study of the stops made by the Chicago Police Department, releasing its findings at the tail end of 2014.

The ACLU used data from over 100,000 traffic stops made by the CPD in 2013. The organization analyzed the data while using additional numbers from the Illinois Department of Transportation. What the ACLU discovered was that there existed racial disparities in the traffic stops within the city and in police districts that had the fewest number of minority citizens.

The ACLU also found disparities in four specific types of searches during the stops: Searches of vehicles by consent; Searches of vehicles by non-consent; Searches of drivers by consent; and Searches of drivers by non-consent.

More from the ACLU’s study:

In all four kinds of searches analyzed in this report, black and Hispanic motorists were significantly more likely to be searched, and white motorists were significantly more likely than Hispanic motorists to be caught with contraband. In three of four kinds of searches, white motorists were significantly more likely than black motorists to be caught with contraband. In the one exception to this pattern (consent searches of drivers), black motorists were only 6% more likely than white motorists to be caught with contraband. This hit-rate pattern generally holds when the different types and amounts of contraband are disaggregated.

Similar to the disparity noted in the NYPD “stop and frisk” trials, the CPD’s targeting of Black and Latino residents signals to some groups who look at such instances as a deeper issue. The CPD has not responded to the findings of the ACLU report officially.

Read the ACLU-Illinois study in full here.

[h/t Raw Story]

Photo: CPD