Vol. 2, Issue 48: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: More on Chicago's Strategic Subject List
How does a young man from North Lawndale—who has never been arrested for violent crimes or gun possession—become one of 153 people in Chicago with a “perfect score” of 500 on the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) Strategic Subject List (SSL), which aims to predict who will be involved in violence?
According to South Side Weekly, the answer does not lie in the criteria recently released by CPD but rather in a second step that adjusts scores based on individuals’ associations, including the records of people with whom they have been arrested. The Weekly went beyond local and national coverage to interview Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) professor Miles Wernick, who designed CPD’s SSL algorithm and continues to test and update it.
The lack of transparency regarding how the list is compiled is mirrored by the lack of transparency regarding how it is used. CPD states that the list is only employed for “custom notifications,” which offer social services—and warnings of stiffer penalties for future infractions—to 440 top scorers.
However, the Weekly reports that an individual’s score appears on in-vehicle computers consulted by police officers during stops, and to see the actual basis for the score, an officer must open a second tab. Additionally, a CPD directive states that “the highest possible charges will be pursued” for any individual from the notification program who is arrested.
This suggests that longer sentences could result not from what an individual has done but rather from whom they know, based on an obscure database with little transparency or accountability.
(The Chicago Sun-Times recently reported that while CPD previously referenced a list of 1,500 people, in reality, nearly 400,000 Chicagoans are on the list—including 20 individuals with top scores who “have never been arrested either for guns or violence.”)
Karen Sheley of the ACLU expressed concern over the lack of transparency and skepticism regarding Deputy Chief of CPD’s Bureau of Support Services Jonathan Lewin’s claim that scores have no impact on sentencing and that they have been shown to reflect no racial bias. “There’s a lot of ‘trust me’ going on,” she told the Weekly.
Last month, The Sun-Times and independent journalists, including Jamie Kalven of the Invisible Institute, filed a lawsuit demanding that CPD release information about the algorithm used to determine who is included on the list. Speaking with the Weekly, Lewin made the remarkable claim that the algorithm had previously been withheld due to concerns that gangs could use it to “determine risk for rival gangs” and “put those people at risk.”
Last year, the ACLU and 16 civil rights and privacy groups issued a statement addressing the rise of predictive policing nationwide. The statement called for greater transparency, noting that “predictive policing tools are used primarily to further concentrate enforcement activities in communities that are already over-policed.” It also argued that automated predictions based on arrests and other data—potentially reflecting biased policing—“may seem objective or neutral” but will “further intensify unwarranted discrepancies in enforcement.”
The statement raised concerns about constitutional violations, as stops and arrests based on “computer-driven hunches” may fail to meet Fourth Amendment requirements for specific, individualized reasons for enforcement actions.
“Predictive policing tools threaten to provide a misleading and undeserved imprimatur of impartiality for an institution that desperately needs fundamental change,” the statement asserted.
The groups argued that “data can be a tool for good” if used to “identify people with mental illness for treatment rather than punishment or provide early warning of harmful patterns of police behavior.”
SERGEANT IN BRUTALITY LAWSUIT OWNED RACIST WEB DOMAINS
A police sergeant accused of beating a handcuffed woman was found to have owned a series of internet domains containing racial slurs.
The discovery of these domains, owned by Sergeant George Granias, led the city to settle a lawsuit filed by Patassa Johnson for $185,000, attorney Brendan Schiller told CBS 2. CPD has since opened an investigation into the websites linked to Granias.
Granias also had three sustained misconduct complaints, including allegations that he punched and kicked a minor and slammed the individual’s head against a wall, according to Johnson’s lawsuit.
"When you look at what he did in this case, in conjunction with his disciplinary record, in conjunction with this bizarre hobby of buying racist and kind of pornographic domain names, this is not somebody who should be a sergeant in the police department," Schiller told The Daily Beast.
A Justice Department investigation of CPD, released earlier this year, discussed expressions of racial intolerance by officers on social media, concluding that “CPD takes insufficient steps to prevent or appropriately respond to this animus,” and that its social media policy “is apparently not well enforced, even against supervisors.”
In one case cited in the report, ABC 7 News contacted officials in June 2015 regarding an officer who had “posted racist comments and called for a race war” on social media forums. Eighteen months later, the case was still pending—and the officer was still posting racist comments, according to the DOJ.
REPORT BACKS MISCONDUCT CLAIMS BY ENGLEWOOD FOUR
Working with homicide detectives, prosecutors in the Englewood Four case pressured suspects by promising that if they testified against their friends, they could “become a witness” and “go home.” Prosecutors then fed the suspects details for confessions that would later be overturned based on DNA evidence, according to a 2012 FBI report ordered unsealed by a federal judge last week.
Arguing that the report provides evidence of “systemic misconduct” in the state’s attorney’s office, one plaintiff’s attorney called on current State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to empanel a commission to investigate similar cases.
The existence of the FBI report was first disclosed last year by attorneys for the four men. It was prepared during a federal investigation into allegations of misconduct by police and prosecutors in the Englewood Four case. The investigation was ultimately closed, and no charges were filed.
One of the four exonerees, Terrill Swift, reached a legal settlement with the city in May for an undisclosed amount. Last week, the County Board approved a $5.6 million settlement with Swift. The other three exonerees have federal wrongful conviction lawsuits pending.
The four teenagers were convicted of murder and spent nearly 16 years in prison before being released in 2011, after DNA evidence identified another suspect.
The report further supports the argument that misconduct by police and prosecutors in Chicago is “systemic and continual” and strengthens calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to accept federal court oversight of police reform, according to a Chicago Sun-Times editorial.
SETTLEMENT IN CASE OF TASERED PREGNANT WOMAN
The city will pay more than $500,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who suffered a miscarriage after being tasered three times by an officer with a history of excessive force settlements.
A tow truck driver did not corroborate the testimony of Officer Patrick Kelly, who claimed he tasered Elaina Turner because she was fleeing during an incident in which Kelly was attempting to tow cars from behind her Back of the Yards home.
Kelly has a long record of civilian misconduct complaints, including allegations of excessive force and the use of racial slurs. According to The Chicago Tribune, he has “been found mentally unfit for duty twice during his turbulent career, arrested two times, and accused of beating a girlfriend.” An incident in which a friend of Kelly’s was shot at Kelly’s home with the officer’s revolver was recently reopened. Previous jury awards and legal settlements in lawsuits naming Kelly have cost the city $670,000. Last year, he was reported to be on medical leave.
A magistrate judge in Turner’s case accused the city of “inexcusable” behavior after her lawyer discovered that the city had failed to turn over Kelly’s records. This is one of several cases in which city lawyers have been accused of concealing evidence.
VAN DYE TO SEEK CHANGE OF VENUE
Defense attorney Dan Herbert formally informed the court last week that he intends to file a motion seeking a change of venue in the trial of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is charged with murder in the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. The case has received extensive media coverage and has been the subject of ongoing protests. Herbert has also cited comments made by Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a basis for the request.
Additionally, last week, Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon filed two subpoenas—one for recordings of phone calls made by Van Dyke during his six-day stay in Cook County Jail in 2015, and the other for testimony from police union representative Kriston Kato, who spoke with Van Dyke following McDonald’s death.
COUNTY OPENS RESTORATIVE COURT
North Lawndale residents aged 18 to 26 who are charged with nonviolent crimes will be eligible for Cook County’s new Restorative Justice Community Court, where they will work with victims to reach agreements that include restitution and community service. The court will convene weekly in a conference room at UCAN, a West Side social service agency.
As part of its summer reporting fellowship, City Bureau has produced "5 Things to Know About the Court" in partnership with Austin Weekly News.
EVAN ORDERS AFFORDABLE BAIL
Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans ordered bond court judges to release defendants who pose no danger to the public based on public safety screenings and to stop issuing cash bonds for high-risk defendants.
“If they are not deemed a danger to any person or the public, my order states that they will receive a bail they can afford,” Evans said.
BGA ON TRAINING FACILITY, TRANSPARENCY
At Crain’s, Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association questions why the “underperforming” Chicago Infrastructure Trust has been designated as the funding mechanism for the new police and fire training facility instead of the city agency that oversees construction projects.
Shaw adds that much more information is needed regarding efforts to revamp police training. He also calls for updates on efforts to diversify the police force, goals for the new police union contracts, and plans for settling open records lawsuits.