Take Action Today!

Support Continuing Efforts to Fight Racial Profiling in Illinois!

March 9, 2005

Your call is needed! Senate Bill 581, a measure that creates a pilot program to collect and analyze data about stops of pedestrians on sidewalks by Chicago police soon will be considered by the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure is an important "next step" in fighting racial profiling in the State of Illinois. It builds on the data collection and analysis of traffic stops adopted in 2003. Your state senator is an important member of this Committee, so we need your call.

Please call your state representative before next week at the number listed below and tell him/her to vote "YES" on Senate Bill 581. This pilot program impacts only the Chicago Police Department as a test for how this system would work in other jurisdictions. It is an important step in fighting racial profiling.

Senate Bill 581 reflects the "best practice" in contemporary law enforcement. Police officers commonly detain pedestrians on sidewalks and other public places, deprive them of their freedom of movement, conduct a pat-down frisk of most of their body, and interrogate them about possible criminal wrongdoing. The United States Supreme Court has described these nonconsensual detentions and frisks as "annoying, frightening, and perhaps humiliating." Unfortunately, some police officers practice racial profiling in deciding which civilians to subject to these investigative detentions and frisks. Collecting and analyzing data about police stops is a critical step to preventing and detecting racial profiling. You can learn more about this approach and similar legislation now before the Illinois House at http://www.aclu-il.org/legislative/alerts/hb1019.pdf.

Please call your state senator today and support this next step in fighting racial profiling in our state! If you do not recall who your state senator is, you can identify your senator easily at http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/SelectOfficialSearch.asp.

Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee

John J. Cullerton - 6th District - (217) 782-7260

Kirk W. Dillard - 24th District - (217) 782-8148

Don Harmon - 39th District - (217) 782-8176

James F. Clayborne, Jr. - 57th District - (217) 782-5399

William R. Haine - 56th District - (217) 782-5247

Kwame Raoul - 13th District - (217) 782-5338

Jeffrey M. Schoenberg - 9th District - (217) 782-2119

Edward Petka - 42nd District - (217) 782-0422

Peter J. Roskam - 48th District - (217) 782-8022

Richard J. Winkel - 52nd District - (217) 782-2507