Vol 3. Issue 35
Launching the National Police Index
Save the Date - Join us for our Annual Supporters Convening
Join us on Tuesday, November 19th from 6:00 - 8:00pm for our annual supporters convening at Chicago Athletic Association's Stagg Court. This gathering will be a chance to celebrate and reflect on our work over the past year and share a glimpse of what is to come.
This year has been a time of critical new investigations and data work. From the release of a major update to our Civic Police Data Project, to celebrating our two Pulitzer Prize winning investigations, Missing in Chicago and You Didn't See Nothin, and our ongoing storytelling work with young Chicagoans. We are eager to share updates with you over delicious refreshments.
Thank you for your continued support of our work, we look forward to seeing you soon.
If you're unable to join us in Chicago, we invite you to join us virtually on Tuesday, December 3 at 2:00pm CT.
Join CPDP at Chi Hack Night!
On Tuesday, October 15 at 7:00pm CT, join us to virtually discuss our latest update to CPDP.co - a data tool for viewing police misconduct in Chicago.
Chi Hack Night is a free, weekly event in Chicago to build, share and learn about tools to create, support, and serve the public good.
Register Here→
National Police Index
Earlier this month, we launched the National Police Index -a project and data tool showing police employment history data obtained from state police training and certification boards across the U.S. All but one state has such a system.
The National Police Index is a public data project led by reporter Sam Stecklow in partnership with Ayyub Ibrahim of the Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database of Innocence Project New Orleans, and Tarak Shah of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.
Access to this data helps show potential "wandering officers," and is intended for use by residents, journalists, researchers, attorneys, and other stakeholders. Information about the age, source, and other specifics for each state is available on each page.
Explore the Tool→
Learn More and See Recent National Reporting→
Curious City episode featuring Burroughs Legacy Project
This week’s Curious City episode features Burroughs Legacy Cohort member Tiara Hicks discussing the life and legacy of Dr. Margaret Burroughs and features excerpts from interviews with her former students.
The Burroughs Legacy Project at the Invisible Institute explores Dr. Margaret Burroughs’ decades-long volunteer work as an educator at Cook County Jail and Stateville Prison. The project is dedicated to the ongoing critical inquiry of young people, and to amplifying their concerns, their insights and their skills as interlocutors.
Listen to The unsung legacy of Margaret Burroughs: “We called her mama”→
Recent Reporting
Continued Reporting on Sean Grayson's Misconduct
In our latest reporting on Sean Grayson’s history of misconduct, reporters Sam Stecklow, Farrah Anderson and Dean Olsen found that while working for the Kincaid Police Department in 2021, Grayson had a case thrown out for bringing charges with no evidence.
Despite his admission of this fact, Grayson went on to work at four other police departments in Illinois - ultimately ending up at Sangamon County Sheriff's Office, where he would shoot and kill Sonya Massey after she called for help.
Read reporting on Grayson's history of misconduct→
Continued ‘Catalog of Infamy’ Reporting
In the newest installment of the ‘Catalog of Infamy’ series with the Chicago Reader, Max Blaisdell and Sam Stecklow report on CPD's Rule 14: often known as the 'you lie, you die' rule that prohibits department staff from “making a false report, written or oral.” Under existing rules, all officers who commit Rule 14 violations should be added to the Cook County State's Attorney's Brady Lists — meaning that their credibility in court could be called into question and their misconduct may need to be disclosed to defense attorneys. Failure to turn over this information is often described as a constitutional violation.
However, our investigation reveals glaring holes in the SAO's Brady lists: there are nearly 120 current and former Chicago police officers with sustained misconduct complaints for lying or making false or misleading statements missing from State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s Brady lists, at least 15 of whom remain active on the force.
Incident Now Available at newyorker.com
We originally reported on the police killing of Harith Augustus in partnership with Forensic Architecture in 2019. Our year-long investigation contests the police narrative that the shooting was justified and investigates the incident from multiple perspectives, demonstrating that the fatal encounter was caused by aggressive policing rather than any criminal conduct by Augustus through six video-investigations.
Using body-worn camera footage as well as surveillance, CCTV, and dashboard video, filmmaker Bill Morrison reconstructs the 2018 police killing of Harith Augustus as a synchronized split-screen montage. Incident can be viewed at The New Yorker and won the 2023 International Documentary Best Short Documentary Award. Incident is, in part, based on Jamie Kalven’s reporting and Jamie is credited as a producer.
We want to hear from you! We are proud to be a multi-faceted organization working in many areas - including audio reporting, educational work, investigative reporting and more. Please consider completing this form to tell us what areas of our work you're interested in getting updates and event notifications for in the coming year.
