Media condemn racist traffic cameras

Media operatives are decrying traffic cameras for flagging mostly Black and Hispanic drivers.

In a PBS segment last week, several Chicagoans were interviewed saying more Black and Hispanic drivers receive speeding or red light tickets than Whites.

“[I]f we're going to generate revenue, it needs to be off the backs of the entire city of Chicago and not targeted towards the black and brown communities where the people are hurting the most,” said Chicago’s Ninth Ward Alderman Anthony Beale. 

“I've had residents go to the grocery store. They got a ticket going to the grocery store, and they got a ticket going home from the grocery store.”

PBS correspondent Paul Solman also interviewed University of Chicago’s Stacy Sutton, who “has studied literally millions of tickets given in Chicago”. Sutton said most speeding tickets are given in “majority black neighborhoods or majority Latinx neighborhoods”, using a woke term that many Hispanics find offensive. 

Chicago’s traffic camera system was expanded under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is Black. Of the city council’s 50 members, 35 are Black or Hispanic, while 15 are White.

A 2001 study of drivers entering the New Jersey turnpike found that Black drivers were 65% more likely to speed than their White counterparts. The study, however, encountered strong opposition from the federal government, which tried to block its publication. Justice Department officials said it was “not reliable” and asked that it be withheld.

Since then, the subject has been carefully omitted from related research. While there have been several studies on racial profiling of Black drivers, none appear to question whether Black and Hispanic drivers speed more than White drivers.

A 2009 study, for example, found that Black drivers, while a minority, are ticketed more than White drivers:

The results found that Black drivers disproportionately received more traffic tickets than their counterparts that were White or from another minority group. Black drivers, accounting for approximately 31% of motorists, received 58% of traffic tickets. White drivers, accounting for nearly 50% of motorists, received only 36% of traffic tickets. Blacks are more than 2.5 times more likely to be ticketed than Whites. Members of other racial groups are approximately 1.3 times more likely to be ticketed than Whites. 

The researchers concluded, however, that the cause must be either bias or racial profiling:

In conclusion, the researchers note the need for further research to determine whether this discrepancy is a result of biased traffic enforcement or racial profiling.

A 2019 study of 93 million traffic stops found that Black drivers are 20% more likely to be pulled over than White drivers, but also concluded without investigation or evidence that the cause is racism.

“A lot of policy makers feel the need to have data-driven decisions, and so this is a data-driven approach to racial profiling,” said Amy Shoemaker, who was on the study’s research team.