Lightfoot Moves To Overhaul Discriminatory Ticketing In Chicago

July 25, 2019, 10:00am CT

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at a press conference at the UCAN community facility in North Lawndale Tuesday, July 23. Elliott Ramos / WBEZ

Lightfoot Moves To Overhaul Discriminatory Ticketing In Chicago

By Daniel Tucker

July 25, 2019, 10:00am CT

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For over a year, WBEZ and ProPublica Illinois have investigated the ways that ticketing and towing happen in Chicago and how they hit low-income people of color the hardest.

The series is called “Driven Into Debt: How Tickets Burden The Poor.” This week, that ongoing investigation prompted Mayor Lori Lightfoot to take action. Among other reforms, her plan would stop the suspension of driver’s licenses for parking tickets — a move that’s expected to help tens of thousands of Chicagoans.

Morning Shift checks in with the reporters behind the series about the action their work has brought about from city leaders.

GUESTS: Elliott Ramos, WBEZ data reporter and digital editor

Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica Illinois reporter

LEARN MORE: Mayor Lori Lightfoot Announces Plan To Stop Suspending Driver’s Licenses For Parking Tickets (WBEZ 7/23/19)

Chicago Mayor Proposes Reforms That Would Make Life Easier For Thousands Of Black And Low-Income Drivers (ProPublica Illinois 7/23/19)