Authorities began using reverse stings in the 1990s to combat a surge in drug-related robberies in Miami. The technique proved successful and was adopted elsewhere.

In 2014, the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, detecting racial disparity, set out to challenge how law enforcement employed reverse stings. Led by the program’s director, Alison Siegler, the team gathered data on 43 arrests in the Northern District of Illinois, revealing multiple instances in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives departed from its targeting criteria pertaining to people of color and the requirement that suspects have a history of criminal violence.

Their work resulted in dismissal of the most serious charges against 27 defendants, and many of their clients received comparatively generous plea deals that included time served.

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