Dozens of people say police escalated violence at recent protests in Chicago, beat demonstrators and mocked their cause with no fear of reprisal. “It felt like a battle zone,” one speaker said.

Now that he’s no longer fighting a gun charge, state Rep. Curtis Tarver is considering suing the Chicago Police Department for violating his rights.

Facing criticism from aldermen and progressive groups, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown on Monday defended the department’s handling of a protest downtown Saturday evening after officers and demonstrators clashed.

Clashes between police and protesters Saturday in the Loop started peacefully but turned violent, leading to 24 arrests and 17 officers treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police Superintendent David Brown.

Protesters against police brutality were turned away by a line of police officers as they tried to make their way Saturday to the Dan Ryan Expressway to flood it with people and shut it down.

Led by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a new plan for police reform from the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls for sweeping changes to agreements with police unions in order to allow officers to be held accountable for misconduct.

The Chicago Police Department is struggling to reform the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers. What’s being done to address the slow pace of reforms.

“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.