At Issue: City Lawyers and the Code of Silence

The city routinely resists turning over police complaint records and other evidence in civil rights lawsuits, according to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune.

The report raises the possibility of conflicts between defending individual officers and serving the public good and taxpayers’ interests – and whether the city’s law department is upholding a police code of silence by fighting to keep public information secret.

Resistance to turning over documents is stronger in cases involving charges of wrongful convictions and serious excessive force, according to the report. The city routinely resists releasing officers’ complaint records, a practice which corporation counsel Steven Patton defended.

The city has “resisted turning over the most basic documents,” sometimes resulting in years-long legal skirmishes. In a number of cases the city has faced judicial sanctions, sometimes costly. In the case of the 2011 shooting death of Darius Pinex, a judge overturned a jury verdict in the city’s favor after he found a city lawyer “intentionally concealed” relevant documents; the city then settled with Pinex’s family for over $2 million.

Meanwhile the Chicago Reporter has published a database of 655 police misconduct lawsuits filed between 2012 an 2015, along with an investigation finding the police department fails to analyze lawsuits – as department in other cities do – to identify issues that need to be addressed or officers who need correction.

Looking at the small number of cases where the city admitted to police misconduct, the Reporter found that of 151 officers who admitted wrongdoing, only nine were investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority – and of them, only one was found responsible for misconduct.

Diversity. White male officers are disproportionately favored in promotions within the Chicago Police Department – and “the higher the position, the more likely it’s been...filled by a white man” – according to a Sun Times report.

A merit selection process based on supervisor recommendations intended to address the dearth of minorities in upper ranks has made some difference, but it’s also been used by politicians backing favorite officers and multigenerational police families backing a relative. And sometimes supervisors with histories of abuse have promoted officers with similar histories.

The Sun Times highlights the recent promotion of a former Special Operations Section officer to detective after he and other SOS cops were ordered to pay $96,000 in punitive damages for a false arrest; he was recommended by Chief of Detectives Dean Andrews, who resigned last December to avoid being fired in the cover-up of a killing by former Mayor Daley’s nephew.

Another officer who fatally shot quadriplegic in a 2003 traffic stop – subject of a court settlement in which the city paid $5.2 million – was promoted to detective in 2013 at the recommendation of then-Commander Glenn Evans, himself subject of numerous excessive force complaints and several legal settlements.

Meanwhile, the proportion of blacks on the force has “steadily declined” over the past decade, according to the Sun Times.

The Washington Post recently surveyed national data and found that in cities with more representative police forces, fewer black civilians are killed by police.

In its April report, the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force found that the department has made some progress since the early 1970s, when 83 percent of officers were white and a federal judge found the department “knowingly discriminated” in hiring and promotion. But CPD “still has a ways to go to reflect the racial makeup of the city – and the department “has particular work to do when it comes to promotions,” the task force found.

The task force recommended that CPD “develop recruitment, selection and promotion strategies that increase diversity,” and that it follow the lead of most large companies and organizations and implement a diversity program overseen by a Deputy Chief of Diversity and Inclusion.

No bonfires. A bill requiring CPD to preserve police misconduct records passed the House Judiciary-Criminal Law Committee last month but wasn’t called for a vote in the full House. The Better Government expects an effort to get a vote on the bill in the General Assembly’s extended session.

The records are currently covered by an arbitrator’s ruling protecting them for the duration of the investigation of CPD by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Fraternal Order of Police is appealing the ruling.

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5c80c1740c24b198f0f284cd3&id=3416c1da64&e=d41db4dcf6