Pod: Discussion on New CJP Report on CPD Transparency

On today's show we feature a discussion with Katherine Large who authored CJP's new report on the transparency of Chicago Police Department and police accountability system data. Large is a 3rd year student at the University of Chicago and former CJP intern. The report she authored is titled "Transparency and Accountability of the CPD: 1980-2021" which takes an in-depth look at the data available about police accountability in Chicago and then analyzes that data to present a true picture of just how impotent the police accountability has been over the last 40 years.

It is of no surprise to anyone paying attention in Chicago that the CPD has always been for exploiting the idea of transparency for the organization's political gain but always have to be dragged kicking and screaming to release any meaningful data. Large's report details all of the wholes in the transparency practices of the CPD and a long stream of mayoral administrations starting in the 1980s and going right up to the current administrations of Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown. Both of which continue to brag about their transparency practices but when you go look under the hood you realize it is all shallow rhetoric and little to no meaningful change is actually occurring.

The two main takeaways from Large's report and our discussion on today's show is just how minuscule the rate at which the police accountability system sustains findings against officers and then how little full, or any, discipline is actually enforced as the secretive process contained in the union contracts nullifies the vast majority of the discipline the police accountability system brags publicly about handing down. The lack of transparency in the process has allowed the CPD and the police accountability to avoid public scrutiny for its absolute dismal performance.

Also on the show today we cover:

an OpEd in the Chicago Tribune written by a former Cook County Criminal Court judge who wants to exclude the court from the public discussion around justice reform.
a crappy article in the Chicago Tribune about the lack of progress by the city and the CPD to install reforms to policing in Chicago.