City Releases Data on Complaints Against Police


After an eight-year legal battle, the city of Chicago has released data on which police officers have amassed the most complaints.

We speak with the journalist whose lawsuit forced the disclosure of that information and the president of the Fraternal Order of Police.

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The city of Chicago set aside $27 million for settlements in 2013, but surpassed that amount in January:

Settlement: $22.5 Million
Date: January 2013

The City Council voted to approve a $22.5 million settlement to the parents of Christina Eilman who was raped and severely injured after Chicago Police released her from custody in a troubled neighborhood despite Eilman’s mental illness and pleas from her parents. In May 2006, Eilman, then 21, was arrested at Midway International Airport because she was acting strangely and violently. After her release from custody, Eilman ended up in a public housing building, where a man raped her at knifepoint before she fell from a seventh story window. The settlement will pay for Eilman’s ongoing therapy and is the largest in a police misconduct case in Chicago history.


Settlement: $10.25 Million
Date: January 2013

A $10.25 million settlement was approved by the City Council; it was the biggest settlement in a police misconduct case stemming from the investigation into a notorious police unit that framed innocent black men in the 1970s and 1980s under the direction of former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. Alton Logan received the settlement after he spent 26 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.


Settlement: $6.2 Million
Date: 2012

National Lawyers Guild attorneys reached a $6.2 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against the Chicago Police Department on behalf of thousands of protesters that were arrested during a 2003 protest. On March 20, 2003, approximately 10,000 anti-Iraq War demonstrators were marching through downtown streets. Police arrived and surrounded a large section of the crowd, trapping them and arresting more than 700 people without ordering them to disperse.


Settlement: $4.5 million
Date: March 2013

The City Council approved a $4.5 million settlement with the family of Rekia Boyd, an innocent bystander who was shot and killed by off-duty Chicago Police Detective Dante Servin; the city acknowledged that Servin fired five shots blindly over his shoulder at a man with whom he’d argued with. Boyd was struck as she tried to escape the gunfire.


Settlement: $4.1 Million
Date: 2013

The family of Flint Farmer will be paid $4.1 million. On June 7, 2011, Officer Giladardo Sierra was captured on video shooting Flint Farmer in the back three times as Farmer lay bleeding on the parkway. Sierra fired 16 rounds in total, with seven striking farmer. 


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