Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois investigative reporters on how some Chicago police officers are able to reduce or overturn their punishments.

Starting Thursday, Cook County probation officers will have a new place to refer some of the 20,000 people on probation. For many of them, finding work is critical to staying out of trouble with the law.

An off-duty police officer shot and wounded a would-be carjacker Monday evening in the Bronzeville neighborhood, according to the Chicago Police Department, which is dealing with an unprecedented spike in vehicle thefts this year.

A music teacher at Fulton Elementary has raised thousands of dollars and collected donations from around Chicago to replace dozens of instruments that were stolen from his school.

The longtime Chicago journalist talks about his new book “Murder in the News: An Inside Look at How Television Covers Crime.”

Jamie Kalven, the Chicago journalist who broke the story of Laquan McDonald’s shooting death, will not be compelled to turn over his sources or testify in open court, a judge has ruled. “To have it resolved, and definitive resolved, was a big relief,” Kalven said.

More than 7,000 sworn officers and personnel in the Chicago Police Department are now outfitted with body-worn cameras, a goal the city says it met more than a year early.

Should Jamie Kalven, the reporter who broke the story of the Laquan McDonald shooting, be forced, under oath, to reveal his sources? 

From 2011 to 2013, a LaSalle County physician prescribed hundreds of thousands of milligrams of controlled substances to a trio of opioid-dependent patients in exchange for sex, according to a plea agreement.

Chicago police say robbers on the city’s Northwest Side are deceptively warning residents of urgent situations such as gas or water leaks in order to gain entry and steal valuables.

Local government is going after a major ride-sharing company for not only failing to protect customer and driver data during a massive 2016 data breach—but also for failing to disclose it, as required by law.

Reforms to Cook County’s bond system have led to a 15-percent decrease in the county’s jail population. “Our judges are in fact not setting bonds higher than people can afford,” said Chief Judge Tim Evans.

“It’s a brand new beginning for me,” said Leonard Gipson, one of 15 men who had drug convictions vacated by a judge Thursday. The convictions stemmed from arrests made more than a decade ago by disgraced former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts.

Shooting deaths are down across Chicago in 2017 after last year’s unexpected spike, but this week the city homicide totals crossed another grim milestone.

Michael Borys was in jail for less than a day when he had a seizure and fell from his bunk, resulting in vision loss and multiple brain surgeries. Three years later, Cook County has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit 

The number of hate crimes recorded across the country rose nearly 5 percent last year, according to new data from the FBI. In Chicago, the number of recorded incidents rose 34 percent over 2015.