Bloomington PD: Pedestrian stops focus on high-crime areas

Brendan Heffner
Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner says a report on pedestrian stops could easily be taken out of context. (WJBC file photo)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffner said a recent report on pedestrian traffic which shows a higher percentage of blacks being searched than whites is misleading.

Heffner told WJBC’s Susan Saunders these pedestrian stops are not random but are not based on race..

PODCAST: Listen to Susan Saunders’ interview with Heffner on WJBC.

“Ninety-nine percent of these pedestrian stops that they are questioning occur in high-crime areas,” Heffner said. “Pedestrian stops and frisks, when warranted and legal, they help us get get and guns off the streets.”

The study of the first six months of 2016 showed while blacks make up 11 percent of the city’s population, they made up 36 percent of the pedestrian stops. A larger percentage of whites, however, who were stopped were actually arrested.

“I want to make it perfectly clear, it’s based on a person’s actions or information we have, it is not based on race,” Heffner said.

Heffner added he was not surprised by the results.

“I would have been surprised if there were a lot of stops and searches outside our high-crime areas because then I would have had some issues with that. But in our high crimes area, particularly the one in the middle, we have hybrid gang activity in that area.”

Julie Prandi of Bloomington compiled the report through information obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests and the data was vetted by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…