As Chicago finds itself at a crossroads with police misconduct cases, the city's taxpayers are shouldering the considerable weight of a multimillion-dollar burden. A recent report released by the city's law department, and reviewed by the ABC7 I-Team, indicates that in the past year alone, Chicago paid out $81 million to resolve litigation against the Chicago Police Department (CPD). A significant portion of this figure has gone towards settling "reversed conviction" lawsuits, which have witnessed an uptick from $44 million in 2022 to $51 million in 2023.
Meanwhile, efforts to reform the disciplinary process for the CPD have hit another snag, with the majority of serious misconduct cases stalled, according to the Chicago Tribune. At least 16 of the 19 pending cases before the Chicago Police Board are currently on hold. This delay is due to the lack of an agreement between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police on a new framework to allow arbitrations to be publicly accessible, something that was mandated by Cook County Judge Michael Mullen last March. The holdup demonstrates the difficult reality of instituting reform within a system resistant to swiftly acknowledge and address its flaws.
It isn't merely a recent spike in settlements that stands as a testament to a troubled system, but rather the trend over the past half-decade, which has seen over $378 million in payouts from the pockets of Chicago's citizens. Additionally, the Inspector General of the city, Deborah Witzburg, told the I-Team, "If we are using those settlements and judgments to learn lessons about how to improve operations and how to manage the city's risks, then there's some return on those dollars." However, she added, "If we are not learning any lessons to reduce risks going forward on the basis of litigation data, then we're just writing big check and we're missing expensive opportunities."
On the flip side of the coin, the proceedings of the Chicago Police Board seem to be stuck in limbo. The board, which oversees disciplinary decisions, is unable to move forward with the most severe cases. With public arbitration hearings approaching, it remains unclear when these proceedings will resume. "The restriction of public access to arbitrations for serious police discipline is a direct contravention of the well-defined and dominant public policy of accountability and transparency of the government services in general and the Chicago Police Department specifically," said Cook County Judge Michael Mullen in his order. Despite this ruling, the city and the FOP appear to be struggling to quickly find common ground.
As the Democratic National Convention looms on the horizon, the city's handling of past protests adds to the already hefty legal tab facing taxpayers. Over $100,000 has been paid out in 2023 to plaintiffs in lawsuits stemming from CPD's conduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests. Ron Safer, a former federal prosecutor and a defense attorney who has represented legally exonerated clients suing the city, told the ABC7 I-Team, "The city's about to have another pivotal moment. The city has risen to the occasion before, when we had the NATO summit here. The city did very well, the police department did very well. But it's a crisis point." The implication being, there's hope that past settlements might guide future tactics and perhaps even permit the city to sidestep repeating costly mistakes.
