As Billie Dent drove her Dodge Charger down East Cook Street in Springfield three weeks ago at dusk, she saw a police car do a U-turn behind her.
The Virden woman checked her speedometer, but she wasn't speeding. Her Dodge Charger was souped up with fancy wheel rims and a custom paint job. But she didn't think that was what caught the officer's eye.
Could it be her Black boyfriend sitting next to her?
A recently released Illinois Department of Transportation study found that Springfield cops are five times more likely to pull over Black motorists than white ones.
When Dent, who is white, brought her car to a stop, a member of the city's street crimes unit asked questions not just of her – but of her Black passenger.
"I ain't do nothing. I'm a passenger, Bro," her boyfriend said to the police officer who demanded his identification. Repeatedly, the passenger asked what he had done wrong. The officer did not respond on a cellphone video provided by Dent.
At first the officer said Dent had an expired license plate sticker. But Dent noted that couldn't have been the reason she was pulled over because the police car did a U-turn after meeting her vehicle and the sticker is on the back plate – not the front.
Later in the video, the officer said the tinting on her car's back windows was too dark.
"My tint's not dark at all. You can see in my car very clearly – it's very light," she told Illinois Times.
Ultimately, Dent was not ticketed or issued a written warning for any infractions and she was told she could leave. When she pulled forward, spikes in a "stop stick" an officer had left in front of her vehicle ruptured a tire. The waitress and mother of nine ended up paying $318 for a new tire.
She said a city official later told her because she had old debts with the city, she would not be reimbursed for the tire.
"My checking account has $4 in it. I'm a single mom and I struggle. Shit happens. I get that. It's an inconvenience, but you make it right. They are not even trying to make it right with me," Dent said.
In the wake of IDOT's report, the Springfield Police Department issued an unrepentant statement. "The IDOT Traffic Stop Study does not take into account the specific areas where stops are made and (the) racial and ethnic makeup of those areas. Historically, the city of Springfield has experienced higher rates of gun violence on the city's east side and the Springfield Police Department has focused enforcement efforts in this area to counter the gun violence and keep residents safe."
The statement also says it is the practice of the department to treat all people in a fair, impartial, equitable and objective manner.
But Alderman Shawn Gregory, Ward 2, said that is not the perception of many of the city's African American residents.
"Hopefully, it is not anyone's goal to ride around and stop Black young men all the time, because we're trying to get guns and things off the street. We definitely want safety in our communities. But we don't want people stopped unnecessarily for things that they're not doing."
Many of Springfield's police officers are white and have grown up in small towns void of racial diversity, said Vanessa Knox, co-chair of the Faith Coalition for the Common Good's Transformational Justice Task Force.
"If you're not used to seeing a whole lot of minorities and different ethnic groups and things, it makes people a little leery and more suspicious," she said.
Knox said she believes that Black people are targeted by police.
On the other hand, white people driving trucks sporting Confederate flags or bearing racist or hateful slogans don't receive the same treatment, she said.
"It is really quite hurtful when you are stopped for absolutely no reason by a police officer," she said. "Years ago, it happened to me. The officer wanted to know if I had just got done robbing the Family Dollar. ... My mother is white and nobody views her with suspicion. I'm Black, and it's a different story."
She added that there is a widespread belief in Springfield's Black community that Black people driving nice cars are targeted by police.
"There is a perception that if you are a young Black man driving a nice car, like a Hummer, the police will think you must be a drug dealer and they will run your plate. That's not fair either – to have your name go through those systems."
Scott Reeder, an Illinois Times staff writer, can be reached at: [email protected].
