The Cook County Board of Commissioners is expected to consider a resolution at its meeting Wednesday concerning a report on Chicago police "stop and frisk" practices issued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois last month.
Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin (1st District) introduced the non-binding resolution seeking to recognize "the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois for its report on 'stop and frisk' police practices" and call "upon the city of Chicago to adopt the reforms recommended in the report."
"The abuse of stop and frisk is a violation of individual rights, but it also poisons police and community relations and directly impacts the bottom line for Cook County taxpayers by leading to arrests that would not have otherwise occurred, thereby burdening Cook County Courts and the Cook County Jail," the resolution reads.
According to the ACLU's report, there were over 250,000 stops by Chicago police that did not result in an arrest between last May through August. During that four-month period in 2014, Chicago had a rate of 93.6 police stops per 1,000 residents. That's four times greater than New York City's peak high of 22.9 stops per 1,000 residents during the same time period in 2011.
Among other findings, the ACLU's review showed that African Americans were subjected to 72 percent of all Chicago police stops from May through August, despite only representing about 32 percent of the city's total population.
In response to the report, the Chicago Police Department noted that it "expressly prohibits racial profiling and other bias based policing," adding that it has also made recent improvements to its contact card and investigatory stop policies. The police department has not announced support for the reforms outlined in the ACLU's stop and frisk report.