Wrongful convictions have long been the most expensive kind of police misconduct in Chicago, costing taxpayers $29.25 million in 2024, or nearly 40% of the total amount spent to resolve allegations of police misconduct, according to WTTW News’ analysis.
Police Accountability
The seven-member board unanimously approved the resolution, which directs CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to implement a new whole school safety policy, which “must make explicit that the use of SROs within District schools will end by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.”
The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. If approved, a final vote of the City Council could come as soon as Thursday.
The Chicago Police Department would be required to immediately launch a new study of whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city, under a measure set to be considered by a key City Council committee.
Cases that involved at least one officer with repeated claims of misconduct accounted for 60% of the cost borne by taxpayers to resolve police misconduct cases between 2019 and 2022, according to the analysis by WTTW News.
Applications are now open to serve four-year terms on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which is designed to give Chicagoans real control of the police department as part of an effort to build trust in officers and police brass and put an end to repeated allegations of misconduct.
The Chicago City Council voted 31-18 to resolve the lawsuit filed by the family of Darius Cole-Garrit, which claimed the officers who shot the 21-year-old threatened him hours before they nearly ran him over and then shot him in the back as he fled.
The vote on Monday by the City Council’s Finance Committee, which came over the objections of at least seven alderpeople, means the full City Council will once again consider resolving the lawsuit filed by Darius Cole-Garrit’s family.
The Chicago Police Department has reached full compliance on just 6% of its consent decree requirements. Independent monitor Maggie Hickey expressed a belief that additional transparency will help bring police in line with necessary reforms.
The policy approved by the commission bans officers from belonging to hate groups that promote prejudice or those that aim to overthrow the government or interfere with police duties.
“It is hard to imagine a more serious issue in police oversight right now,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. “Chicago has to get this right.”
The Oath Keepers organization is considered by the FBI to be a “large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some who are associated with militias” who have vowed to “not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders.”
COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten announced in June that she would seek to clear the agency’s backlog of cases more than 18 months old, which she said were compromising the ability of the agency to investigate more recent complaints alleging significant misconduct by officers.
The inspector general’s probe found that while the officer’s former partner was moving out, the officer “told them to call everyone they loved and tell them goodbye” and told them they were going to kill them and their family if they appeared at the apartment later that same day.
The 39-page report from the independent monitoring team, led by attorney Maggie Hickey, compiled the results of the feedback gathered from more than 400 Chicagoans at 17 community engagement sessions in February, March and April.
Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood acquitted Sgt. Christopher Liakopoulos, 44, and Officer Reuben Reynoso, 43, after a bench trial, finding they acted reasonably when they opened fire on two men in July 2022.
