Police Accountability – Chicago Council of Lawyers

Pretextual Vehicle Stops—A Pipeline to Police Testilying

Our January 2023 police perjury report convincingly demonstrates that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has a culture that condones dishonesty, prevalent lying in court (“testilying”) and, false report-writing by police officers. Along with recommendations to improve transparency (some of which ha...

NEW REPORT: Fear and Silence – How Culture, Policy, and the ”Win At All Costs” Mentality Allows Police Testilying to Thrive

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and Chicago Council of Lawyers work together to seek evidence-based solutions to social injustices. In early 2022, we began researching the issue of false reporting and police perjury — sometimes known as ”testilying” — in Circuit Court of Cook County. Our fi...

All People Deserve Access to Their Rights – Especially Those as Foundational as the Presumption of Innocence

Cook County leads the nation in exonerations based on false confessions. Between 1972 and 1991, Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge tortured at least 119 people – most of whom were young Black men – in order to force false confessions. Cook County still lives in that legacy: Betwe...

Analysis: Proposals for Community Commissions for Public Safety and Accountability

The Chicago Council of Lawyers has analyzed two proposed ordinances to establish civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Both ordinances -- one proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot ("Mayor's Proposal") and one proposed by a group of community organizations ("Community's Proposal") --...

Chicago Police Accountability Forum

Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and the American Constitution Society (ACS) – Chicago Lawyers Chapter are hosting a forum on police accountability focused on issues facing residents of Chicago. This year’s panel will cover issues related to accountability, t...

VICTORY: Governor Pritzker Abolishes Money Bail by Signing HB 3653 – The SAFE-T Act – into Law

On Monday, February 22, 2021, Governor Pritzker signed HB 3653 SFA2: the SAFE-T (Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity – Today) Act. The bill was sponsored in the 101st General Assembly by Senator Robert Peters, Senator Elgie Sims, and Representative Justin Slaughter as part of the Illinois...

We analyzed 536,000 CPD arrest records spanning a period from 2014 to 2020. Here’s what we found.

INCOMMUNICADO DETENTION Arrested and deprived of communication without being charged with a crime — incommunicado detention in Chicago. In film and on TV, stories about police and criminals have long made for captivating story lines and entertaining ways to stream episodes until 4 am. In a typ...

Analysis: PROPOSALS TO ESTABLISH A CIVILIAN OVERSIGHT COMMISSION FOR THE CPD AND RELATED AGENCIES

Today, the Chicago Council of Lawyers (Council) issues a memorandum reviewing and commenting on two alternative pending ordinances that would establish a Civilian Oversight Commission over the Chicago Police Department (CPD), the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), and the Chicago Polic...

CPD Barriers to Quality Stationhouse Representation

On Tuesday, June 23, Public Defender Amy Campanelli held a press conference to announce the filing of a lawsuit demanding the Chicago Police Department (CPD) abide by state law to provide a phone – and phone number for her stationhouse unit – to all arrested people within one-hour of...

STATEMENT CONDEMNING THE CONDUCT OF CHICAGO’S POLICE DURING PROTESTS

The Chicago Council of Lawyers was founded in 1969 by local lawyers, still reeling from the prior year’s Democratic National Convention, who were concerned about the fundamentally unfair policies and practices prevailing in Chicago and across the country. This weekend, nearly 700 people were arreste...

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