[Peace-discuss] Racial Profiling Study Suppressed by Local Media

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Thanks for posting this, Barbara.

Barbara kessel wrote:
> Below is a story about the IDOT stats on racial profiling released in 
> August but not reported about or discussed locally.
>
> This issue will be addressed from the audience, along with the 
> nuisance ordinance, at the Monday, February 9 Urbana City Council 
> meeting.  Urbana now has the worst racial profiling record locally.
>
> Please come out in support. 
>
> "Racial Profiling Study Suppressed by Local Media" 
>
> by Brian Dolinar 
>
> for the "Public I" and Independent Media website
>
> Statistics on racial profiling collected by the Illinois Department of 
> Transportation (IDOT) were released this year with no local fanfare. 
> Although covered for the last three years, the 2007 numbers went 
> unreported by the /News-Gazette/, who has a virtual monopoly of the 
> local newspaper market. This is surely an attempt to protect police 
> officials from public rebuke and continued calls for police 
> accountability.
>
> For four years now, statistics indicate that minorities are being 
> racially profiled by police in Urbana-Champaign. Among Champaign 
> County Sheriff's Department, the rate has grown significantly. Figures 
> for the Champaign police have gone down but remain higher than the 
> state average. In Urbana, which prides itself on transparency and 
> recently finalized a police review board, the police now have the 
> highest rate of racial profiling locally. Additionally, numbers 
> collected indicate that although blacks are more frequently subject to 
> having their vehicles searched, whites are more likely to be found 
> with drugs or weapons.
>
> Illinois police are now required to report racial profiling statistics 
> because of legislation sponsored by former Illinois Senator Barack 
> Obama. Police departments across the state must make a record of the 
> race of each driver in every traffic stop and send the information to 
> the state. The data is then compiled with help from Northwestern 
> University and released every August. This year, August passed and 
> there was no news in the /News-Gazette/ about the 2007 figures. As a 
> result, there was no public outcry as there has been in the years past.
>
>  
>
> The state comes up with a ratio called a "disparity index" to assess 
> the degree to which profiling is being practiced. If the ratio is 
> 1.50,for example, minorities are 50% more likely to be pulled over in 
> a traffic stop. The average ratio throughout the state of Illinois is 
> 1.10.
>
>
> In Urbana, the ratio at which minorities were pulled over in 2007 
> during traffic stops was 1.47. In 2004, Champaign had the highest 
> ratio locally at 1.71, but in 2007 it was 1.34. Among Sheriff Dan 
> Walsh's deputies in Champaign County, this figure has jumped from 1.02 
> in 2004 to 1.27 in 2007. The ratio for the police department at the 
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was 1.36.
>
>  
>
> In the past, local police officials have failed to acknowledge that 
> racial profiling exists and come up with excuses rather than confront 
> this issue. At a city council meeting on August 14, 2006, Champaign 
> Mayor Gerald Schweighart, himself a former police officer, explained 
> that blacks were "more confrontational." In 2007, Urbana Police Chief 
> Mike Bily said the numbers were "misleading."
>
>  
>
> Police say they go where the 911 calls come from. But according to 
> METCAD between July 1 and September 29, 2007, the majority of calls 
> came from the Green Street vicinity. While 628 calls came from Garden 
> Hills, which has a large black working class population, 1819 calls 
> came from Campustown--nearly three times as many.
>
>  
>
> State figures show that racial profiling is not unique to 
> Urbana-Champaign but is a rampant problem throughout Illinois. Ratios 
> for surrounding communities are: Bloomington, 1.35 ; Normal, 1.80; 
> Carbondale, 1.20; Rantoul 1.83; Springfield, 2.46; Danville, 1.47; and 
> Chicago, 1.14,
>
>  
>
> Other interesting data in 2007 relates to drivers who consent to 
> having their car searched after a traffic stop. Most clear-cut is the 
> case in Champaign where 9 searches were performed among African 
> Americans and in only one case was anything illegal found. Among 10 
> whites who were searched there were 4 cases where drugs or weapons 
> were found. In Urbana, 13 blacks were searched and police found 
> something in 4 cases, while 10 whites were searched and 5 turned out 
> to be carrying. Although whites were more often driving illegally, 
> blacks were more often searched. Again, race determines who is subject 
> to a search.
>
>  
>
> Police officials must recognize that racial profiling does, in fact, 
> exist and take the necessary steps to eliminate this unfair practice. 
> This will only occur with an independent media willing hold police 
> accountable and a public who demands their representatives be held to 
> a higher standard.
>
>  
>
> The full IDOT study on racial profiling can be found online:
>
> http://www.dot.il.gov/trafficstop/results07.html
>
>  
>
>  --
>
>
>
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