The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department certainly seem like they want to keep the work by Michael Bromwich secret and away from the public.
It is pretty clear that Michael Bromwich of the Bromwich Group was hired by the Emanuel Administration to study some aspect of policing in Chicago. Here is some content from the Bromwich Group’s website:
“In February 2016, he was hired by the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department to provide advice and assistance with respect to a broad range of issues involving police department polices, procedures, and training, among many others.”
CJP has sent in FOIA requests to the CPD, City Law & Procurement Departments, and most recently to the Mayor’s office to try to obtain the report associated with his work and to find out how much he was paid for his efforts. The Law Department and the CPD denied our request to access the report saying it is covered by attorney client privilege. The Procurement Department said it did not have any responsive records, including any contract between the City and the Bromwich Group. We strongly disagree that this report is covered by the stated exemption and will be filing suit to contest this finding in court.
The stranger piece of this is that all of these entities have denied our request for a copy of the contract between Bromwich and the City stating that they do not possess the requested documents. Is it possible that he worked for free? Or is the City hiding how much they paid him? One source in the know said he was told the City spent upwards of $900,000 on Bromwich’s work.
This week we sent in a FOIA request to the Mayor’s office asking for both the report and any contract or agreement between the City and Bromwich. We will update this page with the results of this any response from the Mayor’s office when and if we receive one.
CJP just also contacted the Bromwich Group directly to see if they will shed any light in to the work they did or how much they were paid for their efforts.
– Updated 7/11: Here is what the city released to us through FOIA regarding Bromwich’s work:
