La Grange Traffic Stops Plunge Over Decade: Stats

LA GRANGE, IL – Earlier this month, a La Grange official encouraged the local police department to issue more tickets after the Village Board heard complaints about speeding.

"Chief, light these people up. Write some tickets," Trustee Lou Gale said at a meeting. "I don't know whether we have a reputation as a place that writes too many tickets. I wouldn't mind that for a while if we have pedestrian safety issues."

In fact, the La Grange Police Department's traffic stop numbers plunged over a decade's time, according to its reports submitted to the state.

In 2019, the department conducted 2,340 stops, far below the 8,001 stops in 2010. That's a 71 percent drop.

Patch looked at the numbers for seven other nearby towns – Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills, Darien, Elmhurst, Hinsdale, La Grange Park and Western Springs.

All but one of the towns also saw decreases in the number of traffic stops. Most of the drops were in the single digits, though La Grange Park's was 53 percent.

Western Springs had more stops than La Grange in 2019, even though Western Springs has 2,000 fewer people.

Hinsdale is slightly larger in population, but conducted nearly twice the stops of La Grange.

Patch asked La Grange officials about the drop in the number of traffic stops.

In an email, Village Manager Jack Knight said several factors influenced the data.

"This includes significant personnel changes due to retirements and resignations, long-term medical leave, challenges in recruitment, and newly hired staff needing training to become high-performing," Knight said. "It also includes legislative changes prohibiting quotas, and shifts in policing towards community policing (education)."

The police department failed to turn in traffic stop reports for 2020 and 2021, despite a state law requiring such information.

Here are the number of traffic stops by town in 2010 and 2019:

Source: Traffic stop reports submitted to the Illinois Department of Transportation