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Oct 23, 2007
Police claims merit scrutiny
If Dana Starks wants to prevent and punish police abuse, he might be more concerned about inadequate follow-through by department investigators — not lack of follow-up by complainants.
Arguing against letting City Council members see the names of police officers with ten or more abuse complaints against them, interim police superintendent Starks testified at a City Council budget hearing yesterday that nearly 45 percent of complaints against police officers were closed because complainants failed or refused to cooperate with the investigation.
In fact, cases have been closed after investigators sent complainants letters which were returned as undeliverable, said Craig Futterman, an attorney and law professor who has studied CPD statistics on complaints against police.
Aided by detectives and experts in investigative technique, Futterman analyzed a large body of data on serious complaints of police abuse which was provided in a federal civil rights case (pdf) in which he was the plaintiff’s attorney.
(The city paid a large settlement in to the plaintiff, whose complaints to the police department had been dismissed; files for officers who had repeatedly harassed her had numerous similar complaints, which had also been dismissed.)
The analysts found “broad systematic deficiencies” in the department’s investigations of civilian complaints against officers, Futterman said.
Members of his team with police backgrounds said that “if we investigated [criminal] cases like this we’d never make an arrest,” he said.
Very few officers were personally interviewed; generally they were given several weeks to prepare short written statements. There were only cursory attempts to contact witnesses, and no attempts to gather physical evidence. If complainants provided names of witnesses with addresses, “they were sent a letter saying please contact us.”
He did see notations by investigators reporting failure to follow-up on the part of complainants — “it could mean an investigator sending a letter to a complainant and it came back undelivered, and the case was closed” — but “what we saw didn’t support numbers like” Starks reported, Futterman said.
Starks’ claims “don’t match up with what we’ve seen,” he said.He was also skeptical that many complaints are filed by criminals seeking to discredit their arrests, as Starks suggested. As a public defender earlier in his career he dealt with numerous gang members who had serious stories of abuse, and “they were afraid to report them,” he said.”
They’d say, ‘I’ve been arrested, no one’s going to believe me.’” And filing a complaint “invites greater scrutiny and draws attention to the complainant.”
They also knew that the names and addresses of complainants are given to the officers they’ve complained about, he said.
(This presents a striking contrast with the police department, which is afraid of the results if officers’ names are given to aldermen.)
In fact, it’s more likely that a large majority of abuse victims fail to file any complaints at all — often out of fear of retaliation, or simply suspecting that nothing will de done — than that large numbers of bogus complaints are being filed. A June 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Justice (pdf) estimated that less than 15 percent of individuals who believed they were victims of excessive force filed complaints with police departments.
Your ‘appeal’ gets more play than Law and Order SUV – when is that dull show not on? -
This is the latest in a cynical and dangerous campaign by old Leftists and lawsuit adicted lawyers playing to their ‘old school chums’ in the media.
Make millions of dollars in cynical lawsuits and still feel radically good about undermining confidencein law enforcement.
As long as low wattage elected officials like Moore, Smith, Preckwinckle and Munoz have this execise in public nonsense, they do not need to do real work in their Wards.
As long as the renters and transient Chicagoans have something to read on the way downtown, this dangerous and costly nonsense will continue to kill trees and waste money.
http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2007/10/love-relations-starring-ed-smith-toni.html
I’m not sure what Mr. Hickey’s point is here. No matter whether you’re a “lefty” or conservative, it its important that all people’s human and civil rights be upheld and that violators of the law be accountable to their actions – especially if it has been violated by those who have sworn to protect the public and enforce our laws.
Mariano,
This police abuse cascade flows from the same sources of funding: Bluhm; MacArthur; Peoples Law; Peoples Daily; Medill School of Journalism and Northwestern Law Plus less blue-blooded Leftist cadres.
Lawsuits and allegations have taken the place of Justice and convictions in the media, but readers – and I am just one – seem to be able to remember events and connect the dots.
Police abuse hysteria grips the media – not the public. Just this morning ten (10) Blue and Whites sped east on 79th – some citizens must have retained enough confidence in the abilty of CPD to make that call.
They did not call People Law Office or Jon Loevy – the people being called upon seem to do that.
Hickey, it’s not confidence in the cops that had 10 cop cars speeding east on 79th!
It was probably a 10-1 call, officer needs assistance, emergency, that had them all running there!
Anytime that call goes out, the cops just assign themselves to go, even though only the zone dispatcher is supposed to do so.
This is even more egregious with the beat cops, who aren’t supposed to leave their beats unless assigned by the zone!
The rapid response cars are one thing, that’s their job, but the beat cars are supposed to stay on their beats.
They don’t!
Hmmmm, its seems Mr. Hickey is still politicizing the issue by not understanding that “abuse hysteria” grips the lives of victims more then the media. To me – whos brother is a police officer, I am worried that it give other honest cops a bad name and that power shouldn’t be used with imunity.
Mariano,
Come on, pal! I just a guy who reads the papers and goes to work. Politicizing? That’s the forte of goofs in the City Council, activists, and folks tied to the purse strings. I’m far to busy to sink to their theatrics.
How’s the brother feel about having CR beefs leading to intellects like Joe Moore and Ed Smith having the paper to sell to lawsuit lawyers? That’s what this is all about.
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