In wake of fatal police shooting of Dexter Reed, local advocacy groups call for changes to traffic stops

It took just 20 seconds for a traffic stop to turn into a fatal police shooting in Chicago late last month.

The shooting, which occurred March 21 in the 3800 block of W. Ferdinand St., left a Chicago police officer wounded and 26-year-old Dexter Reed dead, with more than 90 rounds fired in less than a minute.

According to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, police initially pulled over Reed because he was allegedly not wearing a seatbelt.

However, a letter obtained by NBC 5 Investigates via a FOIA request shows COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten expressing "serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop” to CPD Supt. Larry Snelling, adding that it is uncertain how the officers could have seen that Reed was not wearing a seatbelt given their location and the tint on the windows of Reed's vehicle.

“We don’t think Chicago police should be pulling people over for not wearing a seatbelt," said Cara Hendrickson, the executive director of Impact For Equity, a law and policy center aiming to reduce the size of the Illinois criminal legal system.

The group sent NBC Chicago a report last week surrounding CPD traffic stop data.

“The report shows an overwhelming number of pretextual traffic stops conducted by the Chicago Police Department,” Hendrickson said.

Pretextual traffic stops occur when an officer pulls over a driver for something other than driving habits. This can range from seatbelt violations to expired plates.

Impact For Equities report, which contained data obtained through a FOIA request with the Chicago Police Department, shows that traffic stops disproportionately impact Black and Brown drivers.

“Black drivers in city of Chicago, for example, are six times more likely to be stopped than white drivers," she said. "And Latine is twice as likely."

A statement from the Chicago Police Department on the matter was issued to NBC Chicago:

"Fair and constitutional policing is the foundation of the Chicago Police Department's efforts to strengthen public safety and trust across the city. Officers only conduct traffic stops when they have probable cause or reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime, including but not limited to traffic violations, has been committed, is being committed or is about to be committed. These stops are not conducted based on race or any other protected class. Additionally, as part of our ongoing reform and consent decree compliance efforts, CPD mandates implicit bias training for all Chicago Police officers."

The report by Impact For Equity shows officers conducted over 500,000 traffic stops in Chicago last year. However, it indicates an overwhelming majority of pretextual stops don't lead to a ticket or arrest.

“Less than 4% of stops done by CPD result in even a traffic ticket," Hendrickson said. “The comparison statistic in the City of New York is about 80 percent.”

Internal emails also obtained in their FOIA shows CPD commanders were pushing districts to conduct more traffic stops as a tool and system to combat violence, confiscate weapons and reduce shootings in 2020.

Yet, advocacy groups like Impact For Equity and their partner, Free 2 Move, want to end pretextual traffic stops altogether. In October 2023, they called on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to end stops for low level offenses, including not wearing a seatbelt.

"Utilizing pretextual traffic stops to address minor licensing violations and equipment problems is a dangerous way to create danger rather than addressing true crime and safety issues in the city of Chicago," Hendrickson said.

Read more about the Dexter Reed shooting here.