Beyond Qualified Immunity: How Police Avoid Accountability
In this episode, we sit down with Joanna C. Schwartz, UCLA law professor and author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable, to unpack the hidden systems that protect police from consequences. We go beyond the headlines about qualified immunity to explore what really blocks accountability: Why most police misconduct lawsuits fail before trial How […]
Because I Got Raided: Afroman, Police Power, and a Lawsuit That Backfired”
This week, we break down the controversial 2022 raid of Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman’s home by Adams County Sheriff’s deputies and the legal fallout that followed. Acting on claims from a confidential informant alleging kidnapped women, a “sex dungeon,” and large quantities of marijuana, officers executed a warrant that ultimately uncovered none of it. In fact, […]
Crime, Fear, and Power: Why We’re Taking a National Focus
How politics, media, and institutions distort crime narratives across America Fear has become the dominant framework for how Americans understand crime—and it is often deliberately manufactured. In this episode of the Chicago Justice Podcast, host Tracy Siska, Executive Director of the Chicago Justice Project, introduces a new national focus for the show. We examine how […]
CJP’s ShotSpotter Transparency & Research Campaign
For two decades, police departments across the United States have relied on ShotSpotter, an acoustic gunshot‑detection system whose capabilities, accuracy, and internal processes have been shielded from public scrutiny. Despite being marketed as a precision tool for reducing gun violence, almost everything about how ShotSpotter works, and how police use it, has been kept secret. […]
Update on PGPD Lawsuit
Chicago Justice sued Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) on March 12, 2024, to enforce Maryland Public Information Act document requests, pending since 2021. The lawsuit seeks documents and records regarding the Prince George’s Police Department’s participation in and collection, storage, and dissemination of gang affiliation data for the Washington/Baltimore High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program. […]
Analyzing Local Media Coverage of Gun Violence in Chicago Over Memorial Day Weekend
On Tuesday, June 1, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that three people were killed and 34 people were wounded in incidents of gun violence across Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. The article from the Sun-Times read “Chicago saw its least violent Memorial Day weekend in three years, with three people killed and 34 others wounded in […]
Recent email hack shows Mayor Lightfoot is failing at her job
The recent email hack in the Mayor’s office was released to the public and has shown that Lightfoot is failing at her job. We have learned that Mayor Lightfoot does not seem to be on the citizens’ side. Lightfoot has repeatedly released misleading and outright false information to keep the citizens of Chicago in the […]
Analyzing Local Media Coverage of Gun Violence in Chicago Over the Weekend
On Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that 12 people were killed and 42 were injured in shootings across Chicago over the weekend. The headline of the article read “Deadliest weekend of the year in Chicago: 12 killed, 42 wounded in shootings.” CBS Local published a similar article on Monday with the headline “At Least 12 […]
Analyzing Local Media Coverage of Chicago Gun Violence Over the Weekend
On Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that 5 people were killed and 21 were injured by gun violence over the weekend in Chicago. Just as they have in past weekends, the Sun-Times, CBS Local, and Fox Chicago kept track of incidents of gun violence that happened over the course of the weekend. These outlets published […]
Rape Kit Transparency Town Hall
The processing of a rape kit seems like it has always been a problem in Chicago and Illinois. For as far back as we can remember the Illinois State Police Crime Lab has had some sort of backlog in processing rape kits to determine if there is biological evidence that could be used to match […]