Chicago cops have been making fewer traffic stops, but more are ending in violence
Tactical officers from the Chicago Police Department’s Harrison District surround Dexter Reed’s SUV before he was fatally wounded in a shootout with the police on March 21, 2024. Civilian Office of Police Accountability
Chicago cops pulled over fewer drivers last year as the fatal shooting of Dexter Reed sent shockwaves through the city and led to promises of reform.
But far more of the traffic stops ended in violence, an investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity has found.
Officers reported using force 787 times during traffic stops — the most since 2018, which was the first full year cops were subjected to tougher reporting requirements.
Meanwhile, more than 200,000 stops apparently went unreported to state officials last year despite a 2003 law that was spearheaded by then-state Sen. Barack Obama.
Chicago Police Department leaders have pushed officers to boost their numbers in recent years, leading to stops that put both cops and community members in danger.
A dozen current department members used force in more than 10 traffic stops between 2018 and 2024 without facing discipline, police records show. Seven of them worked in the Harrison District on the West Side, where Reed died in a gunfight that erupted during a traffic stop on March 21, 2024.
Despite protests, lawsuits and police Supt. Larry Snelling’s commitment to overhaul his department’s approach to traffic stops, little has changed since that fateful encounter.
Reed, 26, who was Black, was driving on a residential street in Humboldt Park when police tactical officers pulled him over and surrounded his sport-utility vehicle.