In 2021, the year Chicago police were most successful at finding weapons in cars, officers made 156 traffic stops for every gun arrest. The analysis found Chicago police have made more than 4.5 million traffic stops since 2015. To get those guns, police dramatically ramped up traffic enforcement on the city’s South and West sides since 2015, stopping hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino drivers each year – even though only a tiny fraction of stops actually led to the seizure of illegal guns.Ī new data analysis by Block Club Chicago and Injustice Watch shows police made hundreds of thousands more stops than they reported to state regulators. David Brown, and their predecessors have long blamed Chicago’s gun violence on a glut of illegal guns and pointed to gun seizures such as this one as proof that they’re tackling the problem head-on. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, former police Supt. Mayberry’s gun became one of more than 10,000 they reported taking off the streets in 2020. To Chicago police officials, this was a success story. But police reported that the gun and ammunition were improperly stored - unlocked and within arm’s reach - and arrested him on charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a felony. Mayberry, a registered gun owner, said that he had been to the firing range earlier in the day and that his gun was properly stored in a lockbox. They found an unloaded handgun and a bag of 45-caliber ammunition on the back seat, and a loaded magazine on the floor behind the driver’s seat, according to the police report. Owing to Mayberry’s “furtive movements,” officers detained him and searched the car. Officers later reported that the 29-year-old hesitated, rolled up the window, and rummaged through the car for a moment before producing his license. ĬHICAGO - It was the kind of traffic stop Chicago police made almost a half-million times that year.Īriel Mayberry was parked at a Washington Heights gas station in May 2020 waiting for his order from the adjoining Sharks Fish & Chicken when two officers approached his car and asked about the tint in his windows. This story is part of a series looking at the connection between traffic stops and gun-possession arrests in Cook County, published in partnership with Injustice Watch.
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