Chicago Justice Podcast

On this episode we sit down with Lauren Cole to discuss her two recent reports about Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown’s hidden suspension for lying in internal misconduct investigation during his time in Dallas. The suspension was actually for providing false information to a responding officer and then that officer’s superiors during the follow investigation regard...

Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara responded to Mayor Lightfoot’s announcement of a vaccine mandate for all city employees in the worst way imaginable. He compared the mandate by the Mayor to the atrocities carried out by the Nazis in Germany during World War II. Catanzara has a history of opening his mouth and saying the absolute wrong thing. A great example of this...

In today’s show we sit down with Jennifer Vollen-Katz who is the Executive Director of the John Howard Association . We discuss issues around the accountability and transparency of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Vollen-Katz was the perfect person to have this conversation with as she leads the only privately run agency that regularly has staff and volunteers monitoring IDOC faciliti...

The Better Government Association’s David Greising sits down with the Chicago Justice Show to discuss a recent post he authored on the BGA’s website. Greising’s post was titled “Finger Pointing Isn’t a Crime-Fighting Plan, Mayor”. The post gets a lot of things right about how the Mayor and Superintendent David Brown seem to be more interested in pointing fingers...

Today we speak with Sharon Fairly, former Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority and Citizen Office of Police Accountability, about what if any possibilities exist to use the police accountability system in Chicago to separate white supremacists cops from the Chicago Police Department. In all the hoopla around the outing officer Robert Baker as allegedly having ties to the...

According to a recent Fox 32 report that cited Geraldo Rivera gang members in Chicago outnumber police officers by a ratio of 10-1. You can tell this was a very serious report as it cited one of the most respected journalists in the country with a specialization of looking for long lost vaults. Rivera supposedly was actually citing statistics on gang members in Chicago that he heard from Mayor Lig...

After five years of pushing from activists and communities of color the community commission has finally passed the City Council. Its passing has been hailed by many on the left as the transformative reform that Chicago has been waiting for many years. The commission is now at least the 6th transformative police accountability reform that has come to Chicago since 1960 when the Chicago Police Boar...

Mayor Lightfoot established a fund to incentivize people from the community to come forward and provide tips on people that possess guns illegally. At initial blush the fund doesn’t seem like the horrific program it is but once you spend some time thinking about it you understand that the fund is ripe for abuse from the community and most likely will just result in a huge spike in minority c...

Chicago police officer John Catanzara has a history with the police accountability system in Chicago that is exhibit number one in why the system is broken. The failure of the system to remove him from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has allowed Catanzara to ride a Trumpian movement within the Fraternal Order of Police and win election to be their president. It is like the membership of the FO...

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board authored what can only be described as an extremest editorial where they call for everyone to support Chicago’s families by offering them nothing but condemnation and “constructive nudges” to instill discipline in their kids. Obviously, Chicago’s gun violence issues has nothing to do with the structural issues in Chicago’s finances...

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell appeared on Chicago Tonight to discuss the never ending dis-information coming from Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown about the impact of bail reform on gun violence in Chicago. A few weeks before this appearance Foxx and her office held a webinar for journalists in Chicago to l...

Today’s main segment we feature part two of our interview with extremely frequent social media poster and former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools Paul Vallas. Vallas does not keep his opinions to himself. He is also a very public supporter of the police and the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP) so much so despite his trying to spin his efforts regarding his participation in ongoing union...

Paul Vallas, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, is a very frequent poster to social media and all too often those posts cover issues of crime and justice. Vallas also is volunteering his time to help the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in their negotiations with the city over their latest contract terms. It is an odd choice for Vallas given his absolute hatred for education related unions....

A new direction for the Office of the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk would be most welcomed. The Office is an public body few people know exists and rarely pay attention to unless they somehow end up involved in the court system. For 20 years the office has been run in the most incompetent and corrupt way possible by the former Clerk Dorothy Brown; however, last November voters elect...

The Chicago Police Department’s broken grievance system has allowed abusive officers to either greatly reduce their exposure to discipline and in some case completely remove it form their records. The rules governing the system are outlined in the contracts between the CPD and the various unions that represent the sworn officers within the CPD. CJP was informed many years ago by a high level...

Unsurprisingly residents of the City of Chicago appear to be divided on the issue of defunding the police. We know this because of a poll the MacArthur Foundation had conducted and an OpEd they published in the Chicago Tribune. It is very obvious the concept of defunding the police is very controversial so the word of the questions in the poll is vital. Despite problems with the questions there is...

Chicago Police Department (CPD) officials are experts at using the promotion of officers to the maximum benefit of the agency. Of course when the script if flipped and they have to announce a demotion of a high ranking commander their lips are sealed even though their is a vital public interest in knowing why the official was demoted. The current practice within the CPD to not comment on demotions...

The city has moved to get the court to throw out the civil suit by Anjanette Young despite public promises by the Mayor to resolve the matter quickly. This move by the city is about trying to leverage a better bargaining position with Young in the settlement negotiations as well as trying to avoid exposure for past and future bad raids by the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The little reported co...

The Public Safety Committee of the Chicago City Council has an opportunity to both demonstrate its independence from the Mayor and deliver a really meaningful opportunity for oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The Committee can as do something they have only really done over the last 20 years which is use the authority of the oversight committee to try to stop the abuse and miscondu...

The “Our Kids Becoming Extinct” headline I am sure was great for attracting clicks but it is a massive dis-service to the very communities the kids discussed in the headline are coming from. This headline serves only to drive fear about out of control violence and push reactionary police and public policy to get the headline out of the news. As the article itself states juveniles victi...

Our report on the agenda of the Chicago City Council Committee on Public Safety reveals damning truths about just how useless this committee has been on the topics of policing and police accountability over the last 20 years. This incredibly comprehensive report looked at 489 agenda items of 186 meetings over 20 years from 2000 through July 2020. Our report leaves the members of this committee no...

The promise of more resources for districts made by Chicago Police Superintendent Superintendent David Brown is pure politics as he attempts to combat criticism from union officials and the media about his creation of roving citywide units that have “stolen” resources from local districts. The most craven part of this effort is Brown knows that even his citywide units are going to fail...

Despite the fact that President of the Police Accountability Task Force Lightfoot and Candidate Lightfoot acknowledging the crimes committed by former Police Commander Jon Burge and his colleagues within the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Lightfoot’s Department of Law is arguing that many of his crimes never occurred. This of course flies in the face of the City Council acknowledging these crime...

The Mayor’s summer violence program is unique is that is does address violence a little differently than past mayors but it is not unique in how it is not part of a long-term solution for communities. What differentiates Mayor Lightfoot’s summer violence plan is that is seems to be data driven to laser focus on 15 Chicago Police Department beats with the most violence. This is truly un...

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 dark about the true circumstances surrounding the Mayor’s office, the Chicago Poli...