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‘Stop and frisk’ ordinance introduced in City Council POSTED 12:43 PM, JULY 29, 2015, BY BILL KISSINGER AND JULIAN CREWS, UPDATED AT 05:12PM, JULY 29, 2015

‘Stop and frisk’ ordinance introduced in City Council
POSTED 12:43 PM, JULY 29, 2015, BY BILL KISSINGER AND JULIAN CREWS, UPDATED AT 05:12PM, JULY 29, 2015

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council held its final meeting Wednesday before an August break.

Ald. Procco Joe Moreno drummed up support for the proposed ordinance known as the Stop Act,  designed to better track the effectiveness and fairness of police stops and searches where arrest are not made.

In a report earlier this year the American Civil Liberties Union found that Chicagoans are four times more likely than New Yorkers to be stopped by police with the controversial stop and frisk practice disproportionately concentrated in the city’s black and Hispanic communities.
The ACLU report was followed by a class action lawsuit against the city in federal court alleging police are unlawfully using the tactic, a claim top police commanders have repeatedly denied. But now comes news from police headquarters,  in a written statement, police superintendent Garry McCarthy says, “Good policing and civil rights are not mutually exclusive, and we have been working with the ACLU for several months to address these issues. Those efforts have led to an agreement in principle, which we expect to finalize and publicly announced shortly.”

Aldermen were taking on a number of issues including an ordinance banning cellphone cases that look like guns.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to introduce an ordinance his administration says will give aldermen and the public more time to review deals where the city sells off public assets .

Aldermen will consider an ordinance that would end free garbage collection at apartment buildings of more than four units that still receive the service. The plan seeks to close a loophole in an ordinance that aldermen adopted in 2000 that exempted bigger apartment buildings until they were sold.

Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, plans to introduce an ordinance to push for new traffic rules aimed at making it tougher for drivers to congregate on Lower Wacker Drive for drag racing.

Aldermen were are poised to approve changes to the city’s ethics ordinance that were criticized by the council’s internal watchdog, who said one of those changes would make it easier for aldermen to retaliate against their accusers.

The change would require Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan to turn over all evidence against an aldermen or council employee to the Board of Ethics before the board determined if the alderman or employee violated city ethics rules.