January was a month of grim statistics. We finished off the year with 783 homicides, according to the ChicagoTribune‘s most recent count. And last week, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Chicago Police Department disclosed that 113 people died in traffic crashes on our city streets last year, including 44 pedestrians and six bicyclists. A preliminary analysis by the Department of Public Health found that residents facing economic hardship suffer crash fatalities at a rate nearly twice as high as those who don’t. So traffic violence, like gun violence, is a social justice issue.
Our conversation took place during the thick of the backlash against the city’s automated enforcement program, including hostility from south- and west-side aldermen and their constituents who viewed the $100 traffic camera tickets as an unjust hardship. During our talk back then, Klein briefly discussed a law-enforcement approach based on the theory that curtailing truly dangerous driving in high-crime neighborhoods could also help prevent other serious crimes, including gun violence. This was among the reasons Klein now says he pushed for the speed camera program, which debuted that summer.
Before he left town, Klein was in talks with the feds about piloting the model in Chicago, he says. But he also says there wasn’t a lot of interest from the police department, which is why the data-driven approach was never tried here.
“There are direct correlations between [traffic violations] and more serious crime,” he says, “so a holistic approach needs to be taken on this front.”
If police opted for more officers patrolling on foot or bikes rather than in squad cars in addition to the data-driven model of policing, Klein argues, this could help improve relations between the police and residents.
