Vol. 2, Issue 4: Record Resistance
From the Archive:
The Regime of Not-Knowing: "In view of the gravity of harms to citizens, communities, and institutions that flow from police abuses, what are the impediments to instituting an effective monitoring and disciplinary system?" In this 2006 excerpt from "Kicking The Pigeon," Invisible Institute Director Jamie Kalven explores an issue of police accountability that resonates today.
At Issue: City lawyers and the code of silence
The city routinely resists turning over police complaint records and other evidence in civil rights lawsuits, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune. The report raises concerns about potential conflicts between defending individual officers and serving the public good and taxpayers’ interests, as well as whether the city’s law department is upholding a police code of silence by fighting to keep public information secret.
Resistance to disclosing documents is particularly strong in cases involving wrongful convictions and serious excessive force allegations, according to the report. The city routinely resists releasing officers’ complaint records, a practice that Corporation Counsel Steven Patton defended. The city has “resisted turning over the most basic documents,” sometimes leading to years-long legal disputes.
In several cases, the city has faced judicial sanctions, sometimes incurring significant costs. In the case of the 2011 shooting death of Darius Pinex, a judge overturned a jury verdict in the city’s favor after determining that a city lawyer had “intentionally concealed” relevant documents. The city later settled with Pinex’s family for over $2 million.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Reporter has published a database of 655 police misconduct lawsuits filed between 2012 and 2015, along with an investigation finding the police department fails to analyze lawsuits—as departments in other cities do—to identify issues that need to be addressed or officers who need correction. Looking at the small number of cases where the city admitted to police misconduct, the Reporter found that of 151 officers who admitted wrongdoing, only nine were investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority—and of them, only one was found responsible for misconduct.
Diversity. White male officers are disproportionately favored in promotions within the Chicago Police Department—and “the higher the position, the more likely it’s been... filled by a white man,” according to a Chicago Sun-Times report. A merit selection process based on supervisor recommendations intended to address the dearth of minorities in upper ranks has made some difference, but it has also been used by politicians backing favorite officers and multigenerational police families backing a relative. And sometimes, supervisors with histories of abuse have promoted officers with similar histories.
The Chicago Sun-Times highlights the recent promotion of a former Special Operations Section (SOS) officer to detective after he and other SOS officers were ordered to pay $96,000 in punitive damages for a false arrest; he was recommended by Chief of Detectives Dean Andrews, who resigned last December to avoid being fired in the cover-up of a killing by former Mayor Daley’s nephew.
Another officer who fatally shot a quadriplegic individual in a 2003 traffic stop—subject of a court settlement in which the city paid $5.2 million—was promoted to detective in 2013 at the recommendation of then-Commander Glenn Evans, himself the subject of numerous excessive force complaints and several legal settlements. Meanwhile, the proportion of Black officers on the force has “steadily declined” over the past decade, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Washington Post recently surveyed national data and found that in cities with more representative police forces, fewer Black civilians are killed by police. In its April report, the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force found that the department has made some progress since the early 1970s, when 83% of officers were white and a federal judge determined that the department “knowingly discriminated” in hiring and promotion. But CPD “still has a ways to go to reflect the racial makeup of the city—and the department has particular work to do when it comes to promotions,” the task force found. The task force recommended that CPD “develop recruitment, selection and promotion strategies that increase diversity,” and that it follow the lead of most large companies and organizations and implement a diversity program overseen by a Deputy Chief of Diversity and Inclusion.
No bonfires. A bill requiring CPD to preserve police misconduct records passed the House Judiciary-Criminal Law Committee last month but was not called for a vote in the full House. The Better Government Association expects an effort to get a vote on the bill in the General Assembly’s extended session. The records are currently covered by an arbitrator’s ruling protecting them for the duration of the investigation of CPD by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Fraternal Order of Police is appealing the ruling.