“We can't have people out on the street interfacing with the public without body cameras,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday, just days after officers responded to a call about a man with a gun that led to a shooting and touched off unrest across the city.

After a police officer shot and wounded a 20-year-old man in Englewood, Chicago police officials say social media posts led to widespread, coordinated looting across the city. We get reaction from local activists and aldermen.

The death of George Floyd and widespread protests over racial injustice have prompted several states to move at a lightning pace to pass significant policing reform proposals that in some cases have languished for years.

A coalition of Chicago-area politicians and community groups issued an open letter Saturday demanding that local officials not cooperate with federal agents being sent to the city by the Trump administration. 

Organizers are pushing for the Chicago Police Department to release officer misconduct records, saying publicly available top-level data omits the public’s narrative and prevents them from seeking “narrative justice.”

An effort by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the Chicago Police Department to turn over nearly five decades’ worth of secret files stalled Wednesday amid opposition from progressive aldermen.

Police Superintendent David Brown said officers faced organized mob action “designed to provoke violent responses” during a protest that started peacefully but turned violent, leaving several officers and protesters injured.

Hundreds of protesters gathered near Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Logan Square home late Saturday, continuing calls to defund the police, end police presence in Chicago Public Schools and implement remote learning in the fall amid the pandemic.

Collective bargaining agreements for officers provide protections that stand in the way of accountability, even when the federal government is overseeing an agency through a consent decree, experts said. 

Activists and elected officials condemned violence by Chicago police and again called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to remove a Christopher Columbus statue that became the site of a clash between demonstrators and officers Friday evening.

The city of Chicago should pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the Chicago Police Department to turn over nearly five decades’ worth of secret files detailing allegations of misconduct by officers, city lawyers recommended.

Aldermen advanced an agreement that will allow anonymous complaints against police sergeants, lieutenants and captains to be investigated, despite concerns that it does not go far enough to hold police brass accountable for misconduct.

A national coalition of labor unions, along with racial and social justice organizations, will stage a mass walkout from work this month, as part of an ongoing reckoning on systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S.

Chicago officials failed to act after the city’s watchdog found significant problems with the program that allows Chicago police officers to patrol schools, and used a federal judge’s order requiring reforms to delay any changes, the city’s watchdog told aldermen.

The Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability are investigating hundreds of complaints filed against officers for their response to recent protests, records show.

Those who believe they have witnessed misconduct by Chicago Police Department sergeants, lieutenants and captains can submit a complaint anonymously under the city’s new contract with their union, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.