Brian Ramson, one of the district councilors for the Chicago Police Department’s Harrison District on the West Side, moved to Chicago in 2013. Since then, he said, he’s been pulled over by police roughly 50 times — about four of those coming after he was sworn in less than two years ago.
A search of Cook County court records suggests Ramson — a physicist at Fermilab who is Black — has never been issued a ticket, let alone arrested.
And he may not be alone. Law enforcement officials are quick to note the thousands of guns recovered by Chicago police officers during traffic stops each year, but civil rights activists and residents of predominantly Black and Latino communities have long called the Police Department’s traffic stops pretextual — using possible minor violations as a means to try to uncover more serious criminal activity.
“What I’ve seen from police officers in my district is they use traffic stops as a way of going around some of the limitations that they’re finding and trying to enforce drug laws,” Ramson said.
Last week, Ramson was the first speaker during the fifth and final listening session to solicit feedback for the Police Department’s forthcoming general order related to traffic stops. CPD within days will submit the first draft of the new general order that will likely change the rules governing when police officers are permitted to pull over a motorist.
As he spoke, Ramson urged two members of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to “really approach the situation with … the perspective that emphasizes the people who have the, I guess, the quietest voices.”
Police Superintendent Larry Snelling often calls for officers to receive “the best” training and be accountable when they don’t adhere to department standards. In an interview with the Tribune last year, he said that any changes to CPD policy must consider the professional duties of Chicago’s cops.
A report from the advocacy group Impact For Equity noted the city’s Department of Emergency Management & Communications documented more than 504,000 traffic stops by officers last year. In 2023, the Police Department said it conducted 523,000 traffic stops.
“We need the best possible rules and regulations for our officers to follow, but those rules and regulations have to be fair, and they can’t be rules and regulations that are going to hinder our officers from being able to go out and do their jobs constitutionally,” Snelling said in December.
The Harrison District (11th), which Ramson represents — roughly bounded by Division Street, Roosevelt Road, Western and Cicero avenues — often sees the most gun violence and most drug arrests of any of the department’s 22 patrol districts each year. The neighborhoods encompassed by the district have long been the epicenter of the city’s narcotics trade and opioid crisis.
“I’ve also watched two people bleed out in front of my house,” Ramson said.
It’s the same district where, in March 2024, a team of Chicago tactical officers pulled over Dexter Reed. An exchange of gunfire ensued and Reed was killed, leading to a lawsuit city leaders have so far not settled.
The residents he represents, Ramson said, don’t feel safe because of open drug activity in the area, but unfair stops shouldn’t be part of a just overall strategy.
“So what I really want to make sure that we’re paying attention to is that this is a nuanced space, and that while I agree with the spirit of what we’re trying to do with limited-protection traffic stops, what I think is important to recognize is that there is a delicacy in how we approach this policy,” he said.
The department’s policy on traffic stops has in fact reemerged as another point of contention in the department’s ongoing reform efforts, largely propelled by the 2019 consent decree.
Last year the independent monitor called for the consent decree to once again be expanded, this time to also include CPD’s traffic stop policy. The CCPSA — the oversight body crafting the policy with the department — has since held the series of listening sessions across the city to solicit feedback from residents, including the one at which Ramson spoke.
The policy draft is expected to be submitted for review Tuesday, and it will be made available to the public on Thursday, CCPSA Vice President Remel Terry said last week during the feedback meeting at Truman College in Uptown.
Terry’s fellow commissioner, Sandra Wortham, noted that the first policy draft is far from the final word on the matter.
“While we are close to the first draft of a policy, this is not at all the end of our engagement with community (members),” Wortham said. “We want to continue to hear from the community, and that means from all perspectives of the community.”
It remains unclear when any new policy would be put into effect.
A report issued this month by Impact For Equity found that the number of traffic stops initiated by CPD officers spiked after 2015. However, the report noted that thousands of stops were not properly documented as officers often failed to issue an Investigatory Stop Receipt.
In 2023, the ACLU of Illinois filed a still-pending class-action lawsuit that, among other things, seeks to “prohibit CPD officers from conducting pretextual traffic stops (such as those with a primary goal of searching for contraband or engaging in alleged general deterrence of crime) or traffic stops for any reason other than enforcing moving violations that affect roadway safety.”
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