Chicago police officers would not be banned from making traffic stops based on minor registration or equipment violations that are designed to find evidence of “unrelated” crimes, under a new policy unveiled Thursday by Chicago Police Department leaders.

The proposed policy “acknowledges” that what the department calls “Pretextual Traffic Stops can be perceived by some members of the community as negative, biased or unlawful. Therefore, any such use of lawful Pretextual Traffic Stops as a law enforcement or crime prevention strategy must strike a balance between identifying those engaged in criminal conduct and the community’s sense of fairness.”

Officers who stop drivers for improper or expired registration plates or stickers and headlight, taillight and license plate light offenses “must strike a balance between promoting public safety and building and maintaining community trust,” according to the draft policy.

Advocates for police reform have long urged the department to ban pretextual stops, saying their use does not make Chicagoans safer and have been used by CPD officers to target Black and Latino Chicagoans.

The proposed policy represents the first time CPD officials have acknowledged officers are empowered to stop drivers in Chicago on a pretext in order to search for evidence of a more serious crime and should be allowed to continue doing so.

Read the proposed policy.

However, Chicago’s police oversight board, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which held five public hearings to gather feedback on what new rules for CPD’s ability to make traffic stops should look like, said it had “significant and consequential” objections to the proposed policy, according to a letter from the board known as the CCPSA that accompanied the release of the draft policy.

“A majority of commissioners think that certain traffic stops for vehicle equipment or license compliance violations do more harm than good and should therefore be prohibited, with some exceptions,” according to the letter from the CCPSA, which has the authority to approve new CPD policies.

Read the letter from the CCPSA.

The policy is not yet final.

Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling agreed 10 months ago to allow a federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, known as the consent decree, to expand to include traffic stops.

That will require this policy to win the support of not just the CCPSA but also the Illinois Attorney General’s office as well as the independent monitoring team charged with enforcing the court-ordered reforms known as the consent decree. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, the judge overseeing the reform push, has the power to resolve any disputes.

“Traffic stops policy should reflect what we’ve heard from Chicagoans – people want a system that builds trust, respects their rights, and ensures safety for everyone,” CCPSA President Anthony Driver, Jr. 

A majority of the CCPSA also objects to CPD’s proposal that officers be allowed to search a vehicle when an officer has “specific articulable information regarding suspected criminal activity” and the consent of the driver.

While a majority of the seven-member commission supports “stricter” rules for when officers can search vehicles with the driver’s consent, there is no consensus on what those rules should be, according to the letter.

Three commissioners would restrict searches with drivers’ permission to cases where officers have “reasonable articulable suspicion or probable cause,” according to the letter.

Three commissioners would allow officers to search vehicles with drivers consent only when they have “reasonable articulable suspicion or probable cause of a Class A misdemeanor or felony” unless that violation involves a violation of the state law that requires cannabis to be transported in an odor-proof container.

Reasonable articulable suspicion is a legal standard that allows law enforcement officers to briefly detain and question individuals if they have specific and articulable facts, rather than vague suspicions, that lead them to believe criminal activity is taking place.

Under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, officers who have probable cause do not need consent to search a vehicle.

CPD officials reported officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2025 to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which is required by state law to track all stops made by police officers throughout the state.

CPD made an additional 210,622 traffic stops that were not documented, making it impossible to know whether drivers’ constitutional rights were protected during those stops.

Traffic stops have long been a flashpoint in the half-dozen serious efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department, since they put officers in close contact with Chicagoans, often under tense circumstances.

More than 44% of all drivers stopped by police officers in 2024 were Black, and nearly 35% of drivers pulled over by Chicago police officers were Latino. By comparison, just 14.8% of drivers stopped by Chicago police were White, according to a report from a coalition of groups that CPD stop making stops based on minor violations.

Read the full report.

The population of Chicago is 31.4% White, 29.9% Latino, 28.7% Black and 6.9% Asian, according to the 2020 U.S. census.

Black drivers were more likely to be searched during a traffic stop and Black drivers represented more than 56% of people arrested by CPD after a traffic stop, according to the report.

Officers made nearly 24,000 traffic stops in the Englewood (7th) Police District, more than in any other police district, according to the report. More than 96% of the people who live in that police district are Black, and face some of the highest crime rates, 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.

The monitors found evidence to suggest a direct correlation between a significant increase in the rate of reported traffic stops by police officers as the number of pedestrian stops dropped, according to a June 2023 report.

The push to expand the consent decree to include traffic stops faced immediate push back from several progressive alderpeople and police reform groups who said the city’s halting progress in complying with the consent decree would make it impossible to quickly change the way CPD handles traffic stops in the wake of the death of Dexter Reed in March.

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 had been stopped on suspicion for failing to wear a seat belt.

The city is facing a class-action lawsuit that accuses CPD of targeting Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops in the latest chapter of the city’s “long and sordid history” of racist discrimination.

Three of the named plaintiffs in that case have been stopped repeatedly since they filed the lawsuit in July 2023, court records show.

Alexandra Block, of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the city to force it to agree to federal court oversight and is representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said the traffic stop policy should address the racial disparities involving traffic stops and set a goal of reducing traffic stops.

“They are using traffic stops to fight crime but there is no evidence that it works,” Block said.

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

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