List Documents Chicago Police Complaints
Published 12:00am Monday, December 26, 2005CHICAGO – A list of hundreds of Chicago police officers who have had 10 or more complaints filed against them singles out an elite police unit already under investigation in a criminal probe, according to a published report.
The Chicago Tribune reported in its Wednesday editions that the list, provided to City Council members with the names of officers blacked out, shows that the top four officers for complaints were all members of the Special Operations Section. Those officers each had 50 or more misconduct complaints against them in the past five years.
That unit is the subject of an ongoing investigation by Cook County prosecutors. Six officers have been indicted on charges ranging from burglary to armed violence.
Mayor Richard M. Daley defended the police department and lauded Special Operations officers who work in some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
“We have a very good police department,” the mayor said Wednesday. “You cannot say there are a few bad apples and write them off just like the media does.
“You have a few bad apples as well,” he told reporters.
Chicago’s police department has been under fire in recent months for high-profile allegations of police misconduct, including two videotaped beatings involving off-duty officers at bars and the indictments of six officers in a Special Operations Section on charges ranging from burglary to armed violence.
The records had been kept secret by court order after they were turned over to plaintiffs in a federal civil rights lawsuit in which several police officers were accused of brutality. After the case was settled, journalist and community activist Jamie Kalven filed a petition in federal court to unseal the documents.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow sided with his petition and released her ruling last Monday, saying the public had a right to see the documents, but the city appealed. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday granted a stay to let the city keep the list secret until judges decide what to do about the case.
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the complaints against officers can range from parking complaints to claims of excessive force.
“It would be unfair to assume that all complaints fall into the more severe categories,” she said.
The City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposal to reform the Office of Professional Standards, which investigates police misconduct. Critics say the office is too beholden to the police department and does little to discipline officers accused of misconduct.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
