Crime & Law

Proposal to Pay Dexter Reed’s Family $1.25M to Settle Lawsuit Would Also Ban Traffic Stop Quotas

The proposed deal to resolve the civil rights lawsuit sparked by the fatal police shooting of Dexter Reed during a March 2024 traffic stop includes a $1.25 million payment to his family. It would also ban Chicago police officials from requiring officers to make a certain number of traffic stops, sources told WTTW News.

The proposed settlement set to be considered Monday by a key City Council panel includes an agreement that requires the Chicago Police Department to issue a new policy within 60 days banning leaders from setting quotas for traffic stops or using the number of traffic stops made by individual officers to determine whether officers should be promoted or awarded a bonus, according to a source familiar with the agreement that has been sealed by the judge overseeing the case.

However, a spokesperson for CPD told WTTW News in a statement the department does not “utilize quotas” for traffic stops.

“Additionally, traffic stops are not a factor in deciding promotions, and traffic stops are never used for incentives,” the statement from CPD said. “Traffic stops are only conducted when there is probable cause for the stop or reasonable articulable suspicion that a person is committing, is about to commit, or has committed a criminal offense.”

The City Council’s Finance Committee is scheduled to meet Monday to consider the agreement, which could head to the meeting of the full Chicago City Council set for Feb. 19 for a final vote.

Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry declined to comment on the proposed settlement of the lawsuit filed by Reed’s family at a Tuesday news conference alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has called the day that the video of Reed’s killing was released the toughest he has endured as mayor of Chicago.

Andrew M. Stroth, the attorney representing Reed’s family, declined to comment.

Four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed on March 21, 2024, hitting him 13 times, shortly after he shot and wounded an officer, according to a preliminary investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA. Reed was stopped by a tactical team of officers in plainclothes driving an unmarked SUV.

The recommendation from the city’s lawyers to resolve the lawsuit filed by Reed’s mother, Nicole Banks, less than a year after the fatal shooting is expected to touch off intense debate and faces an uncertain fate in the City Council.

The City Council has voted to resolve two other lawsuits in recent months that stemmed from fatal police shootings of men with guns for $2 million each, records show. However, no police officers were wounded during those incidents.

WTTW News reported in October that COPA identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and aggressive stops on the city’s West Side at least a year before Reed’s death. The agency had evidence that officers were routinely engaging in misconduct that violated CPD rules and put Chicagoans at risk of a violent encounter with officers for at least a year.

The lawsuit filed by Reed’s family argued that the city and police department should be held liable for Reed’s death, because officials knew officers were improperly stopping drivers and pedestrians on the West Side and did nothing to stop it.

A spokesperson for COPA said its probe into the shooting remains open and active. One of the officers who stopped Reed, Alexandra Giampapa, resigned from CPD in November and is now an officer with the Tipp City, Ohio, police force.

While none of the three other officers who shot at Reed have returned to active duty, Snelling refused COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten’s call to relieve them of their police powers.

Chicago taxpayers paid two law firms through Nov. 18 more than $288,000 to defend the four officers, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Officers told COPA investigators at the scene of the fatal shooting they stopped Reed because they believed he was not wearing his seat belt, a violation, according to reports signed by the officers involved and released by COPA through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Harrison (11th) Police District on the West Side, one of the most violent in the city, had the highest number and percentage of traffic stops of any of the city’s 22 police districts, accounting for nearly 10.5% of all traffic stops made by CPD officers in 2023, according to a report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to reform the Chicago Police Department.

Most residents who live in the district are Black.

WTTW News reported in April that the five officers who stopped Reed had racked up three dozen complaints in the months before the March 21 shooting. Those complaints were provided to WTTW News by COPA after a Freedom of Information Act request.

One of the officers fired at least 50 times at Reed, including three times while he was motionless on the ground, according to a letter sent by Kersten to Snelling. That officer reloaded his weapon twice, while three other officers reloaded their weapon once, according to the letter.

That letter also questioned the basis for the traffic stop that led to Reed’s death.

“Specifically, COPA is uncertain how the officers could have seen this seat belt violation given their location relative to (Reed’s) vehicle and the dark tints on (his) vehicle windows,” Kersten wrote. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with (Reed).”

The shooting remains “under active review by prosecutors in our Law Enforcement Accountability Division (LEAD), who investigate all on-duty officer involved shootings to determine if criminal charges are appropriate,” according to a statement from a spokesperson for Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke.

After Reed’s death, police brass agreed to expand a federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers to include traffic stops. That agreement has yet to be finalized, as officials determine what power the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, the city’s new police oversight board, should have over the hot-button issue.

The city is also facing a class-action lawsuit over CPD’s use of traffic stops. In that suit, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois claims CPD unlawfully stops Black and Latino drivers disproportionately because of their race.

A CPD spokesperson told WTTW News in a statement that traffic stops are “not conducted based on race or any other protected class” and all officers must undergo training designed to combat implicit bias.

More than 51% of all drivers stopped by police officers in 2023 were Black, and nearly 31% of drivers pulled over by Chicago police officers were Latino. By comparison, just 13.6% of drivers stopped by Chicago police were White, according to a report from Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push for police reform.

Approximately 73% of the traffic stops made by Chicago police officers in 2023 were prompted by improper registration or an equipment violation, like a failure to wear a seat belt, according to the report.

Just 2.2% of those stops led to an arrest, and a gun was recovered in 0.5% of stops, according to the report. Approximately 4.4% of stops led to a citation, according to the report.

A 2014 state law, signed by then-Gov. Pat Quinn, already prohibits all Illinois cities and towns from requiring police officers to issue a specific number of traffic citations within a designated period of time or use the number of citations as part of their job performance evaluation.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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