Quinn: No Plans To Halt Vehicle Searches

Governor Pat Quinn doesn't have plans to unilaterally halt consent searches by the state police he oversees.  But Quinn said he's not dimissing a report that indicates racial profiling is still concern in traffic stops.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union released results of a study showing minorities are more often victims of the police searches than white motorists.

Quinn said during a stop in Bloomington last week that he's willing to consider the report and share it with state police and all law enforcement in Illinois.

"I'm going to make it available to our state police and to all of those in law enforcement in the state of Illinois and make sure we do things right," he said.  "I think we always want to be careful with respect to respecting everyone's rights, making sure everything is done properly and under our constitution."

Quinn didn't directly answer a question about whether he would order State Police Director Hiram Grau to halt trooper consent searches.

The ACLU report found that, across Illinois, African-American and Latino drivers are asked by police for consent to search their vehicles at nearly twice the rate of white drivers.

But white drivers are 50 to 60-percent more likely to have contraband discovered during a search.

During a stop in Normal, Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner said he wasn't aware of the study.