For the first time since a damning 2019 audit was released by the city’s watchdog, police officials defended their continuing use of records that list approximately 135,000 Chicagoans as members of gangs, citing their need for the data to prevent “retaliatory violence.”

Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell told House investigators Tuesday he could feel himself losing oxygen as he was crushed by rioters — supporters of then-President Donald Trump — as he was defending the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

Federal authorities on Tuesday announced that Jose Valdovinos had been arrested earlier this week after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with maliciously damaging and destroying a building in June 2020.

The mayor announced Monday that negotiators had reached an eight-year deal that offers more than 11,000 Chicago police officers annual average raises of approximately 2.5% — while imposing new rules on officers suspected of misconduct.

R. Kelly’s lawyers said Monday they would fight prosecutors’ bid to tell jurors about allegations beyond the actual charges  at his upcoming federal sex trafficking trial. 

There were 52 separate shooting incidents between Friday evening and Sunday night, according to data from the Chicago Police Department. That includes a police shooting Sunday in the Kenwood community that left one person wounded.

While the number of women in prisons is relatively small compared to the number of incarcerated men, the rate of female incarceration is on the rise. Black women in particular are overrepresented in the nation’s jails and prisons.

Federal prosecutors in R. Kelly’s sex trafficking case say he had sexual contact with an underage boy in addition to girls, and the government wants jurors in his upcoming sex trafficking trial to hear those claims. 

The U.S. attorney general targets illegal guns. City Council approves civilian police oversight as shootings soar. Lollapalooza goes on despite rising COVID-19 cases. Gov. Pritzker makes it official.

Ushering in a new era of police oversight and reform, the board will be charged with building trust in officers and police brass and putting an end to repeated allegations of misconduct.

The Justice Department is launching an effort in Chicago and four other U.S. cities to reduce spiking gun violence by addressing illegal trafficking and prosecuting offenses that help put guns in the hands of criminals.

The city is expanding a program that works to keep people from getting a drug offense and, instead, places them into treatment. Eleven police districts are currently eligible for the program, but officials say it will be available in all districts by the end of the year.

Eight people who had been around a party bus were shot on the North Side late Wednesday, marking the third shooting in Chicago with at least five victims in just a six-hour span, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The Chicago City Council has approved a measure to create a board of civilians to oversee the Chicago Police Department, the police board and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Andrea Kersten, the interim chief administrator of COPA, shares her thoughts.

With just two votes to spare after a contentious debate of nearly two hours, the Chicago City Council voted 36-13 to create an elected board of Chicago residents to oversee the Chicago Police Department, enacting the most far-reaching police reform ordinance in the country.

Devontay Anderson allegedly used an AK-47 style weapon to fire more than two dozen shots into a car carrying a 7-year-old girl at a West Side McDonald’s in April, and then fled the state to avoid arrest.