Chicago's regressive ticketing policy allegedly targets Black and Brown communities according to many reports, and one business owner and member of the Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce said he believes minorities have become the City's "meal ticket." 

Darell Bester, CEO and founder of international clothing brand line OOSF, said he has seen that the cameras are in poorer areas and not in other areas of the city.

"When will we get to the point that it gets out of the race line?" Bester told Southland Marquee. "You know, and you have to see it... because you can go to one side of town and you don't see a camera in sight... But then when you come to the hood, you know, it's you can't make it up the block without seeing all these massive structures for security purposes. You know, it it makes you almost feel like you're in a third-world country.

"It's it's horrible the way it's set up. And, you know, we know who's going to get the tickets...so you can barely make it a block without something flashing or something as a police light warning. It has to be a different way of doing things in order to monitor certain areas. And I don't think we're going to change out of skin tone any time soon--those of us that are Black and Brown."

The Transit Table Coalition conducted a study on data from the Secretary of State on which areas of Chicago are targeted, a Licence2Work report said. The study was conducted in the winter of 2020 to 2021. The suspension rate, calculated by how many drivers were being suspended based on zip code, was five times higher among Black neighborhoods, and three times higher in Latino neighborhoods, when compared to white neighborhoods. They found similar results in East St. Louis as well as across Illinois. The report went on to claim that drivers with a license suspension are drawn into the criminal system because they continue to drive. A 2017 survey found that 60% of drivers were unaware they had a suspended license until they were pulled over.

"So what do we do?" Bester said. "We we have to feel once again, we have to get in the face of people that are supposed to be doing a job for us, you know, the taxpayers. Those are politicians. These are the people that we get in these offices." Bester noted that when it comes around to election time, the politicians are out in "full force"; however, "after that, you feel as though your gripes and your complaints, your needs and wants are just left on somebody's table. And that's that's how we feel with the situation is just oversaturated in lower-income areas."

The City of Chicago issues more than 3 million tickets each year for a wide range of parking, vehicle compliance and automated traffic camera violations; a 2018 ProPublica Illinois report said. Average ticket costs range from $25 citations for broken headlights to $250 tickets for parking in a disabled zone. In 2007, approximately 1,000 Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings were for unpaid tickets. 

The average debt to the City of Chicago was $1,500, ProPublica said. As of last year, there were more than 10,000 Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings, with the average debt being approximately $3,900. From 2007 to 2021, the City of Chicago increased the cost of ticket fines and license suspensions and advanced the traffic camera program. Chicago motorists owe $1.45 billion in ticket debt dating to September 1990. The City mails vehicle owners multiple notices to give them time to pay or contest tickets before fines double, get sent to collections or land a car on a list to be booted. There is no statute of limitations for unpaid tickets in Illinois; therefore, once debt accumulates, it can last forever.

Bester commented that politicians who have instituted these regressive ticketing policies have to be held accountable.

"It's always going to come down to money...," he said. "So we are that meal ticket. So we need to put pressure on the people that actually are in those rooms, having those conversations now. So if they're not sitting at the table because we did put them there and then people start to truly understand when you get kicked and we get behind you, you're going in to represent us."

Sec. 54-391 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances states that the City of Chicago reserves the right to revoke a person's business license if they do not pay or are unable to pay any sort of issued tickets. It allows a department or agency to deny renewal, suspend or revoke a general business license. A notice is sent to the applicant and a copy is sent to the Department of Revenue. The notice is "Prima Facie," meaning the document itself is legally sufficient to deny issuance, deny renewal or suspend a business license. But a license can only be suspended, denied or revoked after a proper License Administration Hearing is held in which the applicant is given seven days notice. The Director of Revenue may grant one continuance after a "show of good cause."

Bester questioned why the City of Chicago would take away the right to work for gig workers such as Uber drivers and revoke business licenses due to unpaid fines.

"Why would that come into play?" he asked. "Take away their livelihood. What reason does that, what purpose is there for doing that?"

He said it shows once again that "organizations just have too much power over the people and it's not going to hurt them. You know, it's hurting the people. And then when the people are constantly getting pushed in corners, then you can halfway see them, understand why they lash out because they've had enough. You know, they're not winning.... And you can't keep doing people like that, you know, taking away their livelihood, something they work hard at doing, all because they may have fallen behind.... it's almost being in jail without being in jail."

Bester personally has encountered Uber drivers whose cars were impounded due to unpaid fines, and they are unable to work.

"I actually was able to have a conversation with a couple of Uber drivers who, because of the ticket situation, they got booted, of course, and now they are without a vehicle," Bester said. "This is this is their only job. This is their only means of supporting themselves. So what do they do now? Because now you booted their vehicle. You've impounded their vehicle. Then you had this ridiculous price for them to get their vehicle. What are they supposed to do? You know, they're so they feel they feel helpless." 

Bester added that people start looking to leave Chicago.

"That's why you have a lot of people really moving away," he said. "So something's going to have to give at some point."

A previous Southland Marquee report highlighted the impact of the City’s aggressive ticketing regime. That regime is most notable in the form of hundreds of City cameras across the city, which generate tens of millions of dollars a year for City Hall. Block Club Chicago noted that the cameras have come at a steep cost for motorists, particularly from the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods.