Settling for Misconduct

Between 2012 and 2015 alone, the City of Chicago paid $210 million to settle 655 police misconduct cases.  A disproportionate number of these cases were in African American and Latino neighborhoods, many of which are undergoing significant change.  These cases were typically settled by the City, with no admission of guilt on the part of the officers involved.   Not only did these cases further weaken already strained relationships between the Police and the impacted communities, they diverted resources that could have been otherwise used for city services or neighborhood revitalization.  The Chicago Reporter created an interactive database to analyze the cases at length, and to provide policy makers, activists and journalists with the information they need to make inferences and informed recommendations. Join Susan Smith Richardson, the Editor and Publisher of the Chicago Reporter,  and me in an informative discussion about their initial findings regarding police misconduct cases; an overview of the database, and ways website visitors may use the data to engage their constituencies to begin the process of identifying critical issues and solutions and increasing police accountability.