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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Study Reveals Racial Profiling in Illinois Consent Searches

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Thursday, August 14, 2014   

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – It's been 10 years since Illinois began collecting data about every traffic stop in the state as a means of curbing racial profiling, and a new study suggests it's not working.

Using data from 2013, the study from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois found African American and Hispanic drivers are nearly twice as likely to be subjected to consent searches as white drivers, while white drivers are more likely to be caught with contraband.

ACLU senior lawyer Adam Schwartz says it's a troubling problem that needs to be addressed.

"Enough is enough,” he stresses. “This is a law enforcement technique that is broken and can't be fixed.

“The technique ought to be abolished. Police simply should not be in the business of asking people for permission to search their cars."

The report also noted racial disparity in the use of drug-sniffing dogs, and found the Illinois State Police was more than twice as likely to conduct a dog sniff on a stopped vehicle driven by a Latino than on a white motorist.

Yet, the study showed white motorists were more than 60 percent more likely than Latino motorists to be found with contraband in a trooper search that followed a dog alert.

Schwartz says there is an inherent problem with consent searches because often they are not truly voluntary.

He says many motorists believe they must grant consent, while others fear there will be consequences if they refuse.

"We've heard reports where the consent is refused and the officer says, 'OK, we'll do this the hard way and we're going to hold you for a few minutes until the dog arrives and we're going to walk a dog around your car,'” he says.

“So technically everyone's got the right to refuse, but in practice sometimes the police lean on people."

The Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Study Act of 2003 was passed as an effort to reduce racial profiling and legislation passed earlier this year extends the collection of data for another five years.







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