Chicago Justice Podcast

Doctored information from CPD is rampant in Mary Mitchell’s recent column. The Sun-Times is no stranger to biased information. And Mary Mitchell is no stranger to biased writing either. Mary Mitchell, a columnist for the Sun-Times , has been writing columns condemning the CPD for decades. Mitchell has written columns criticizing their lack of due diligence and police practices. Additionally, Mary...

On today’s show comes from a March 10th conversation we had with 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin to discuss the status of the community commission for police oversight. At the time of our discussion Mayor Lightfoot had pulled out of negotiations withe the two groups pushing their individual versions of the commission and instead announced publicly that she would introduce her own version of t...

A secret purchase of a drone by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) with full knowledge of Mayor Lightfoot and her administration raises all kinds of privacy concerns around 1st amendment activities. It also raises concerns for just how much the Mayor cares about community input in to the massive expansion of police surveillance capabilities at the same time both the city and country are in the mi...

Today we sit down with Illinois State Representative La Shawn K Ford, 8th District, to discuss his proposal to create a critical race theory academy for police to attend and learn about how race impacts policing and the administration of justice. Going through this academy would be mandatory for any individuals seeking to become a police officer before the state could certify any new officer. Also...

Sydney Roberts, Chief Administrator of the Citizen Office of Police Accountability, (COPA), resigns her position effective Friday, May 14th. Her exist is one in a line of justice related positions that individuals seems to be fleeing from in the Lightfoot administration. CJP was not supportive of the appointment of Roberts to the position back in 2018 when then Mayor Rham Emanuel picked Roberts to...

The Chicago Tribune published an article with a headline that makes you think they have a scoop on the new foot pursuit policy from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). What the Tribune delivers can best be labeled as notes from a possible brainstorming session about what might be included in a new policy someday. The Tribune cannot confirm anything in the document they obtained is in the current...

The videos collected in the Anthony Alvarez shooting was released late last week with by the Citizen Office of Police Accountability (COPA). One of those videos was from a home security camera outside the house where the shooting occurred. From the video is seems like Alvarez never did anything that could be construed as threatening towards the officer. The video shows Alvarez fleeing from the off...

The murder of a west side black politician in the early 1960s is one that the city just didn’t want to solve according to our guest today on the Chicago Justice Show, Mick Dumke from ProPublica Illinois. We discuss his latest piece titled “The Murder Chicago Didn’t Want to Solve “. According to Dumke Lewis was the first black alderman elected on the west side of Chicago. Th...

Former Congressman Luis Gutierrez recently held a press conference to lash out at Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for failing to review the body camera video in the Adam Toledo case before one of her prosecutors offered a proffer in court stating that Adam had a gun in his had at the very moment he was shot. As I cover in the show there is certainly something wrong with this demand. It...

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 to profiles in the DNA database. There has also been, and may still exist, a problem with local police depart...

The Community Commission on Public Safety (Commission) is one of the campaign promises that Mayor Lightfoot just has not been able to deliver on and seems to do nothing but take wrong step after wrong step trying to implement this legislation. Recently, the Mayor announced she was walking away from the negotiating table with the various community and reforms groups behind the Grassroots Alliance f...

  Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Iris Martinez pulled what was always expected and flip flopped here campaign pledge to make her office be responsive to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Instead Martinez backed an Illinois Senate bill to make the office responsive to what is called the local records act. The Clerk’s office was created under the Illinois Court’s Ac...

The Fraternal order of Police (FOP) has long be known be a force working against reform even when it is in the best interests of their membership. They are also known for backing up a single officer no matter the long-term consequences for the organization and its membership. The Adam Toledo case may turn out to be just another example of this. FOP President John Catanzara now does these videos th...

  The Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) response to the George Floyd protests turn out to be chaotic , unorganized, and under prepared. This comes from a review of the CPD”s response from a report recently released by the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (DPSIG), Deborah Witzburg. Floyd was murdered on a Monday and despite spreading protests around the country and open s...

On today’s show we discuss covering the George Floyd protests from the streets with a former Marine that brings with him a unique perspective on the freedoms being exercised by protestors and what it meant to him to be one of the people that put his life on the line to fight for those rights. Our conversation is framed both from what our guest reported during the protests and some of finding...

  In this episode we dive in the the reforms found in HB 3653 passed by the Illinois General Assembly in mid January. Specifically we focus on the front end reforms or those reforms that mostly deal with policing that are found in HB 3653. For those unaware this nearly 800 page bill is what is considered an omnibus bill. This means it is made up of many different bills up together to passed a...

  The impact on sentencing and incarceration from the recently passed omnibus bill HB 3653 in very significant. We discuss many of the these specific reforms on today’s show. Our guest is Jobi Cates, Founder and Executive Director of Restore Justice Illinois. This large bill is packed with reforms. It is far from everything the state legislature could have done to reform the criminal ju...

Understanding the impact of the intersection of the multiple problems that communities are facing on the south and west sides is not something that politicians and the media in Chicago have been very good at. The media has a systemic issue with allowing local alderman off the hook for their votes on financial issues that contribute to creating the conditions in these communities that drive crime....

In today’s show we discuss two really bad articles from Fran Spielman and the propaganda coming from Superintendent David Brown’s YouTube series. Spielman is known through our Chicago as a reporter that is seeking nothing but sensational headlines and salacious quotes that can make headlines. We discuss two recent articles from her covering Alderman Beale’s cop house idea and carjackings . Neither...

Bail reform is a very hot topic in Cook County despite the fact that there have been very few facts driving the discussion. Bail was created to assure that people show up for court proceedings after being charged with a crime. The thought was that forcing people to put up a some of cash would make sure they show up for court. If they did show up for their court hearings despite the outcome of the...

Sexual violence in Chicago is a significantly under-covered crime in Chicago and is only really covered if the media can exploit and sensationalize the event. Today we chat with Executive Director Erin Walton and Director of Programs and Policy Sarah Layden from Resilience . Our discussion covers defining what exactly is sexual violence, how often it occurs, and the Chicago/Cook County justice sys...

The affidavit override rule function within the police accountability system should have been a very powerful tool to help leaders bring in real accountability. A recent report released by the Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety (DPSIG) documents that the power was rarely if ever used for many years despite evidence being contained in investigative files that would have supported the applic...

Too little effort from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is going in to responding to sex crimes in Chicago according to a new report from the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE). Today we sit down with Madeline Behr, Policy Manager, at CAASE to discuss a report she authored titled “Too Little, Too Late? The CPD’s Response to Sex Crimes”. The report contained s...

The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) is an association of multiple community based organizations working together on issues of police accountability in Chicago. The group came together after the release video showing the murder of Laquan McDonald by Jason Van Dyke. GAPA’s main focus has been the creation of a community commission that would provide communities with a vehi...

  An audit of the Citizen’s Office of Police Accountability’s (COPA) compliance with the City of Chicago’s video release policy shows systemic failures in the police accountability system in Chicago that lead to COPA failing to live up to the office’s obligations under this policy. The policy was put in to place in the wake of the release of the video showing the murde...