A jury is now deciding whether CPD officers traumatized Ebony Tate, her mother and four children on Aug. 9, 2018, when a CPD SWAT team set off flashbang grenades outside the family’s apartment before breaking down the door and repeatedly pointing assault rifles directly at the children.

"We have seen no evidence that the Chicago Police Department has changed any policies or training or examined any operational changes they are going to make as a response to these really disturbing findings,” said Alexandra Block of the ACLU of Illinois.

Officer Richard Rodriguez is the fifth member of a tactical team to be stripped of his badge and gun after COPA identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and unprofessional traffic stops of Black Chicagoans downtown.

CPD has been under federal court oversight for nearly seven years as part of an effort to stop officers from routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights by overhauling the way the department trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

“I share your impatience,” U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said. “I do recognize it is too slow.”

Jaime Rios was 20 years old when he was convicted and sentenced to 36 years in prison after being investigated by Reynaldo Guevara, a former Chicago police detective accused of routinely framing suspects.

The study, conducted by social scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania blamed “systemic factors” for the disparity, not the actions of individual officers.

City law requires the Chicago Police Department to provide updates abouts its progress in crafting a system designed to alert officials about which officers have been the subject of repeated police misconduct allegations.

Thirteen lawsuits naming former Chicago Police Department Reynaldo Guevara have now been resolved, with 38 lawsuits pending.

CPD is required to implement the system under the terms of the consent decree, the federal court order designed to compel the department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

The study, which examined whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city to stop crime and respond to calls for help, found “inconsistent service levels, constrained proactive time, and limited supervisory capacity in high-demand areas.”

Taxpayers paid an additional $5.2 million to private attorneys to defend former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara and the other officers named in the four lawsuits.

Dominga Flores Gomez, 55, died in the crash that ended the chase launched by two Chicago Police Department vehicles just before 9 p.m. Sept. 28, 2022, in McKinley Park, records show.

Since January 2025, Chicago taxpayers spent at least $103.1 million to resolve 14 lawsuits brought by people who were injured or on behalf of those killed during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee. A final vote of the City Council could come on Feb. 18.

Chicago taxpayers paid an additional $2 million to defend the other Chicago police officers named in Johnson's lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.