Bodycam footage showed a plain clothes tactical unit approaching Reed's SUV and ordering him to roll his window down with their weapons drawn.
Three items packed in that one sentence that raise serious red flags, Why would a tactical team, in plain clothes, with weapons drawn, be necessary for a seatbelt violation?
I would think anyone faced with that scenario, including law -enforcement officers, would be highly concerned that this was an attempted robbery scheme and that these were not police, but criminals.
It's an unnecessary show of force even in a crime ridden Chicago. That being said though, if this is how they must operate for their own safety, than the blame lies in the administration.
In my neck of the woods (generally rural area, town of ~25k about 15 minutes away), “street” arrests for felony drug offenses more often than not start off as a traffic stop for a minor offence. Speeding and expired plates are very common. Improper lane usage, failure to signal, and so on, are frequent reasons for stops too. Then, either something more comes up when the officer radios in a plate or license number, or perhaps the operator doesn’t have a valid drivers’ license, or maybe the officer recognizes a person or person as being wanted for some other crime. Drugs then get turned up and arrests are made. Very often search warrants are issued for the subject’s or subjects’ homes and more drugs are found. Ditto for felons with firearms.
Sometimes these stops progress to the point of a suspect pulling a gun, running, etc. In the case of a suspect drawing a gun, around here, especially if sheriff’s deputies are involved, and shots are fired, we end up with a dead perp. But it usually only takes a shot or two.
To be clear, I’ve driven by a lot of stops and have never seen the police with their guns out. Usually drivers are not further suspects, and USUALLY even further suspects are not stupid enough to engage police in a shootout.
In any event, I’d say that in this case it looks like the officer(s) likely had good reason to expect an armed confrontation.