Chicago police and ACLU agree to stop-and-frisk safeguards

CHICAGO — The Chicago Police Department and American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois announced Friday that they’ve come to an agreement on monitoring how officers go about conducting street stops of citizens in the nation’s third-largest city.

The deal follows fierce criticism of Chicago police disproportionately targeting minorities for questioning and searches under the controversial "stop and frisk" practice.

Under the agreement, police will track all street stops and protective pat-downs — not just those that don’t result in an arrest, as they have in the past.

In addition, the city and ACLU have agreed to name an independent consultant, former U.S. magistrate Arlander Keys, who will issue public reports twice a year that detail how the department conducts street stops and recommend policy changes.

The police department also agreed to bolster training of officers to ensure that officers don’t use race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation when deciding to stop and frisk, and to conduct pat-downs only when reasonably suspicious that a person is armed and dangerous.

The agreement goes into effect immediately.

Lat March, the ACLU published a study that showed black Chicagoans were subjected to 72% of stop-and-frisk searches even though they make up only about a third of the city's population. The report also said Chicago residents were stopped by police at a rate four times greater than New York City residents. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced changes to the city's stop-and-frisk policy last year.

Police officers can legally stop, question and frisk someone if they have reasonable suspicion that the person has engaged in criminal activity or is about to. But the ACLU said Chicago police, who conducted about 250,000 stop and frisks that did not lead to an arrest last summer, appeared to be acting unlawfully.

In announcing the settlement, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the department is committed to practices driven by crime data and community intelligence.

"As the men and women of the Chicago Police Department work to make our city safer and identify the small subset of individuals who torment our neighborhoods with violence, it is imperative that we use every tool and resource in a way that is not only lawful but respectful of the residents we serve,” McCarthy said in a statement.

The ACLU said the agreement incorporates a bulk of the changes it sought without going through a protracted legal battle.

“What we have done here is move past the litigation process and advanced directly to a collaborative process, to insure that stops on Chicago streets meet constitutional and legal standards,” ACLU Legal Director Harvey Grossman said.

The city and police department still face a lawsuit on the issue. Following publication of the ACLU report in March, six African Americans who said they were subjected to unwarranted stop-and-frisk searches filed suit against the city and police department, charging their constitutional rights and those of many others had been violated.

Since it was originally filed, more than 40 additional plaintiffs have joined the suit.

Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for one of the original six to sue, said the deal brokered by the ACLU and police address many of his client’s concerns.

His client, Darnell Smith, says he was stopped and frisked by police without cause as he stood outside his grandparents’ home on the city’s South Side, while he was waiting for a restaurant delivery.

While Romannuci called the agreement a “victory,” he said the lawsuit will move forward.

“This practice affected so many people for such a long period of time that we have to make sure that this agreement that’s in place remains enforceable,” Romanucci said. “The one way to do that is to continue ahead with our lawsuit..and ensure that what the city says it actually will do.”

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter @AamerISmad