Twenty years ago, a state senator from the South Side sponsored groundbreaking legislation to combat racial profiling by police. The 2003 law required law enforcement agencies throughout Illinois to compile and report data on traffic stops in their jurisdictions, including the race of the driver, the circumstances of the stop and the outcome.
The Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Study Act was hailed as a promising tool against the widespread police practice of stopping a disproportionate number of Black drivers, often with little or no cause, for what critics dubbed “driving while Black.”
