The Citizens Police Oversight Committee is requesting village board approval to conduct an investigation into a racial disparity in Oak Park police traffic stops.
They want a review of stops from 2020 to 2022 after data showed the department stops more Black individuals than white. The Wednesday Journal reported on Oak Park’s disparity, and the national issue, in March.
In 2022, Black drivers were more than half of the 2,814 traffic stops conducted by Oak Park police officers. But Black individuals make up only about 19% of the population. White individuals make up about 63% of the population, but are stopped only a third of time, according to the Investigative Project on Race and Equity.
Black drivers were also more likely to be issued a citation during these traffic stops, the data shows. According to a memorandum from Kevin Barnhart, chair of the CPOC, many of the stops are for moving violations and could be subjective.
Barnhart claimed that most of the stops of Black drivers, however, are not of Black residents of Oak Park. But this could create an image of an unwelcoming community, he said in the memo.
The investigation
The CPOC is asking for access to all the traffic stop data and policies that relate to how traffic stops are conducted. The Oak Park Police Department would, if approved, be conducting data analysis as part of the investigation, according to the memo.
“The aim of this investigation is to provide full transparency around OPPD traffic stop practices and associated outcomes to the Village Board of Trustees and Village President to ensure traffic stop policing practices are fair to all who traverse our community,” Barnhart said in the memo.
There are several areas the CPOC wants to explore in its investigation, including:
- Location of traffic stops
- Explanation of “triggers” for traffic stops
- Access to policies related to traffic stops
- Demographic data, including:
- Traffic stops conducted compared to Oak Park demographics
- Resident versus non-resident
- Moving violations
- Consent and non-consent searches
- Citations and warning
- Arrests made
- Time of day analysis
The CPOC is asking for full cooperation with the OPPD during the investigation. Barnhart did not respond to a Wednesday Journal request for comment on this process.
Village response
Kira Tchang, the village’s human resources director, pointed out in a memorandum that the majority of the CPOC’s adopted workplan for 2024 is related to citizen complaints about the OPPD. But the committee can, with approval or direction from the Board of Trustees, conduct studies like this one.
“You would see this on a board agenda assigning the committee the work,” Tchang told Wednesday Journal. “It would not necessarily require an amendment to the work plan, but it could.”
According to Section 2-30-2 of village code, the CPOC is authorized “to monitor and evaluate Village efforts in the Police Department in regard to racial and cultural diversity in such areas as training, recruitment, promotions and interpersonal relations.”
So, the village board could assign the Illinois Traffic Stop Study Analysis to the CPOC for review, according to the memo. Then, the OPPD would investigate and analyze the data.
The police department, however, would not be able to analyze data quickly, Tchang states in the memo, because of “competing priorities.” Those priorities include things like the implementation of a new records management system, the police strategic plan and recruiting new patrol officers.
OPPD estimated the data requested could be provided in about four to five months, unless the village trustees designate this a higher priority over others, or if additional staff is provided.