Police Accountability
The number of people shot in Chicago dropped more than 10% in the first six months of this year, as compared with the same period last year, according to police data. The number of shootings is down 6.4%, according to police data.
The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois accuses the Chicago Police Department of making more than 1 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2022 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans.
The number of homes searched by Chicago Police officers dropped nearly 90% since 2019, the same year a botched raid left social worker Anjanette Young handcuffed while naked and pleading for help, according to new data.
The seventh semiannual report from the team led by attorney Maggie Hickey urges police brass and city leaders to “urgently address” staffing shortages, a lack of supervision for officers and poor data collection, analysis and management.
The agency’s substantial backlog — made up of cases more than 18 months old — is compromising COPA’s ability to investigate more recent complaints alleging significant misconduct by Chicago Police officers, Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten said.
Chicago Police Department leaders offered no “legitimate rationale” for the racial disparity to the independent monitoring team charged with enforcing court-ordered reforms.
In all, the payments approved Wednesday are equivalent to 11% of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.
The board in a 5-3 vote Thursday moved to terminate Sgt. Alex Wolinski, finding that he committed multiple rule violations and a “failure of leadership … so serious as to be incompatible with continued service.”
Arthur Brown spent 29 years in prison after being convicted of killing two people by setting fire to a South Side store in 1988. He was released in 2017 after a judge overturned his conviction, prompting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to drop the charges against him.
Sharell Brown, 26, was shot and killed during a confrontation with police officers who stopped him in Lawndale. Brown was shot four times in the head and twice in his right arm, according to the investigation of the shooting by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA.
“It’s so important that we actually get this information out, not just for me, but for any of these other cases that they are holding back, giving us all the details," Shapearl Wells said. “It is so crucial for the public to find out what’s actually happening in Chicago.”
An audit by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg reveals the Chicago Police Department has allowed more than 100 officers who filed false reports to stay on the job. Some were even promoted after being found to have lied.
The audit documented a lack of accountability that undermines efforts to rebuild trust in the Chicago Police Department, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.
Cook County recorded 124 overturned convictions in 2022, all but two of those were tied to misconduct by two former Chicago police officers, according to the report.
Chicago Police Officer Sammy Encarnacion resigned Wednesday, the same day that results of the probe conducted by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA, was released, officials said.
Officer Sammy Encarnacion physically and verbally abused his girlfriend, pointed his department-issued gun at her and was often intoxicated while armed, according to the results of the probe conducted by Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA.