Our analysis shows a troubling pattern of officers charging alleged victims of police misconduct with aggravated battery or assault to a police officer or resisting arrest.
Perspectives
The racist roots of American policing: From slave patrols to traffic stops
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Half a century after the federal government voided Jim Crow laws, the criminal justice system still discriminates against African Americans.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Rahm Emanuel tries his hand at fiction. And the media is buying it.
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In a media misinformation blitz, the outgoing mayor rewrites his record on police reform and schools.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
The Chicago police union’s ‘alternative facts’ on police reform
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Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham continues to stonewall on adopting measures that are standard practice at departments across the country.
Criminal Justice
Watchdog: Seriously flawed Chicago gang database undermines public trust in police
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A report by the inspector general’s office calls on the police department to make immediate changes to its list of 134,000 mostly Black and Latinx individuals unfairly designated as gang members.
Perspectives: The Powers That Be
Lightfoot’s long, complicated record on policing easy to distort
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The mayoral candidate’s reformist persona is being challenged by hardline police accountability activists.
Criminal Justice
Report: Illinois’ Countering Violent Extremism programs struggle to gain community partners
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Advocates have long criticized CVE as a ‘softer’ approach to unwarranted surveillance that enlists community members to track harmless, constitutionally protected behavior and activities as precursors to violence.
Criminal Justice
Bad police fingerprint work undermines Chicago property crime cases
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Experts and judges question the quality of fingerprint analysis by Chicago police forensics, hampering prosecutions in burglary and theft cases.
Perspectives
Chicago’s moral debt to black youth
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The police consent decree fails to make amends to African-American young people, who are both most harmed by the department and a driving force in a city on the cusp of a historic change in leadership.
Settling for Misconduct
Chicago spent more than $113 million on police misconduct lawsuits in 2018
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The city paid more for police misconduct settlements last year than any year since at least 2011, bringing the total tab to well over half a billion dollars in just eight years.
Criminal Justice
Misinformation impedes voting rights of Illinois’ formerly incarcerated
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Illinois is among the few states where formerly incarcerated regain their voting rights after release, but many are misinformed and unaware.