A traffic stop in Chicago for an alleged seatbelt violation turned deadly within seconds. Plain-clothed police officers shot and killed Dexter Reed, wounded one of their own, and fired almost 100 shots. The release of body cam footage has led to public outcry, with activists and loved ones demanding answers about why Reed was stopped and how a routine traffic stop could result in such a violent altercation. The traffic stop is part of a pattern that has increasingly targeted Black neighborhoods in recent years and activists say may violate people’s rights, according to Bolts Mag. The traffic stops have been called “the new stop-and-frisk.” And they’ve been particularly aggressive on the city’s West Side, where Reed was stopped and killed. Activists have warned for years that these traffic stops can spark volatile encounters. Police pull over more Chicagoans in the Harrison (11th) Police District, where Reed was pulled over than in any other district in the city, according to a Block Club Chicago analysis of police data. The vast majority of those stops don’t lead to tickets.
According to a report by Impact for Equity, one-tenth of all Chicago traffic stops happened in that district, averaging more than 154 stops per day, even though the area accounts for just 3% of Chicago’s population. About 96% of people living in the district are Black or Latino, according to the report. Chicago police oversight raised concerns over officers' reason for stopping Reed. Investigators are unsure how officers could see Reed wasn't wearing a seat belt, given that Reed’s SUV had tinted windows, chief administrator Andrea Kersten wrote in a letter to Police Superintendent Larry Snelling. Snelling has pledged to reduce traffic stops by routinely training officers to act on “reasonable articulable suspicion or probable cause,” he said the day before footage of Reed’s killing was released. “People have been sounding the alarm that the massive escalation in traffic stops would lead to more violent interactions because of the way this strategy is being conducted. These stops have become so routine and they are so ineffective that we knew we would have some tragedy like this occur as a result,” said Ed Yohnka, spokesperson of the Illinois ACLU. “The stops take place in this fashion where guns are drawn and there’s an immediate escalation of things."