[Peace] Racial Profiling Study Suppressed by Local Media

[Barbara kessel]

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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