Covering issues of crime and violence is very hard but that is no excuse for not doing it better. So says our guest this week on the Chicago Justice Show Jason Cherkis. Cherkis is seasoned reporter who started out working for weekly paper in Washington, DC covering these very issues. Through be told reporters at Read more about Telling Stories About Crime is Hard[…]
So, isn’t Lightfoot not filling vacant police positions actually a move towards defunding the Chicago Police Department (CPD)? There is little doubt that defunding the CPD would require staff reductions. I believe Lightfoot is being disingenuous at best when she says stuff like “if we defunded the police, we would have to cut the youngest Read more about MMB: Defunding the Police Without Accountability[…]
Despite commitments to work collaboratively from senior officials within Kim Foxx’s Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office our efforts have instead been stonewalled at every turn. Just like the typical Cook County politician she is not interested in real transparency and true oversight. Our previous lawsuit resulted in a settlement in 2017 in which Foxx’s senior Read more about Cook County State’s Attorney Breaks Settlement Agreement and Forces Lawsuit![…]
Spielman is at it again with a completely contrived political story devoid of context featuring FOP President John Catanzara. The FOP dropped a notice to her that they wanted a story in the news, and of course, Spielman lapped it up. By seeking and exploiting outrageous quotes (per her usual style), Spielman produces this useless Read more about MMB: Catanzara, Johnson, & Brown’s Truth[…]
It is time the finances of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) be open for the public to better learn about how the agency spends money and what that money is spent on. Traditionally the public is only able to access the CPD’s budget in a very basic level through the larger city budget document. Then Read more about FOIA: Opening the Finances of the CPD[…]
CJP was victorious in our summary judgment motion in our efforts to get the CPD to admit publicly that that a staffing analysis they say they did supporting Rahm’s decision to hire a thousand officers never existed. Yes, we are fighting a FOIA battle over a document CJP knows never existed. This is just another Read more about CJP Wins Summary Judgment Motion[…]
CJP submitted this request to the Public Safety Committee of the Chicago City Council in a ridiculous continuation of our efforts to figure out who was on this committee from 2000-2020. For months now CJP is been trying very hard to track what alderman served at any point on the Police and Fire Committee which Read more about FOIA: Public Safety Committee[…]
To start with – the internal review itself is missing. Frank Main from the Sun-Times published a piece on an internal review conducted by Sheriff Dart detailing what Main wants us all to think are excessive continuances in criminal cases. Main pushes Dart’s line that this is due to judges granting inappropriate numbers of continuances Read more about MMB: What is Missing from Dart’s Internal Review?[…]
Using crime statistics appropriately seems out the reach of both the CPD and the Chicago media. “Last month, Chicago recorded its deadliest September in more than 25 years as the city approaches 600 homicides in 2020 with a quarter of the year still left to go.” What? How many of the last 25 Septembers had: Read more about MMB: Exploiting Crime Statistics[…]
The Chicago Police Board has a very unprofessional practice of categorizing the type of misconduct for which the officer has been accused of for statistical reporting purposes but refuses to attach that categories to individual cases. This of course is being done on purpose so that for instance we cannot track how the Board handles Read more about Chicago Police Board FOIA for Discipline Data[…]