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Curbing pedestrian stops might not reduce police-civilian encounters

Chicago shifted from stopping pedestrians to stopping drivers, study suggests.

A photo of a Chicago police car parked behind a dark-colored van.

A sharp decline in pedestrian stops in Chicago several years ago corresponded with an equally sharp increase in traffic stops, a new study shows.

Arvell Dorsey Jr./Flickr (CC by 2.0 Deed)

By Sujata Gupta

Any encounter between police and civilians has the potential to go awry (SN: 11/17/21). Stop and frisk, where police pat down pedestrians suspected of carrying contraband, can be particularly fraught, leading to some efforts to limit the practice.