Three Chicago City Council members have asked the Inspector General and the Chicago Board of Ethics to investigate 14th District Police Council member David Orlikoff, following allegations by colleagues of verbal abuse, threats and inflammatory statements. The requests, reported by NBC 5 Chicago, put a question about the city’s accountability process alongside the dispute itself: what happens after officials ask for an investigation?
The allegations are not findings of misconduct. Colleagues cited by NBC 5 said Orlikoff had repeatedly targeted them and others, including through social-media posts and statements comparing fellow officials to Nazis or fascists. The report also described an email exchange in which Orlikoff blamed two aldermen for contributing to the climate surrounding the 2023 killing of six-year-old Wadee Al Fayoumi, and made sweeping statements about Zionists and Jews. Orlikoff told the station he objected to the focus on his language amid what he described as child-stabbing murders; he ended the interview and walked away.
A request is not an investigation
The city’s Board of Ethics says it does not conduct factual investigations of ethics complaints. Instead, it adjudicates completed factual investigations conducted by the Inspector General, according to the Board of Ethics. That description clarifies the board’s role, but does not establish whether the Inspector General has opened a matter concerning Orlikoff, or what authority or outcome would apply in this case. The NBC 5 report describes requests for an investigation, not a completed inquiry or a finding.
There has been an earlier, separate effort to address Orlikoff’s conduct within the district-council system. South Side Weekly reported that Christopher Laurent sought formal censure by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability at a citywide meeting of district council members in September; the measure fell one vote short. A censure proposal and a request to the Inspector General or Ethics Board are distinct actions, and the earlier vote does not resolve the current allegations.
Elected oversight, with limits
Police district councils are elected bodies intended to connect residents and police at the district level. Chicago has 22 councils, each with three members elected by district residents every four years; the first elections were held in 2023, according to Documenters.org. The 14th District council has also faced public disputes documented in earlier local reporting, including disagreements and complaints described by South Side Weekly. Those accounts provide context for a council under strain, but do not independently establish the current allegations.
The ballot is one accountability route, but the available election figures should not be mistaken for district-specific participation. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners reported 566,973 ballots cast citywide in the February 28, 2023 municipal election, a 35.85% turnout among 1,581,564 registered voters; those figures are citywide, not for the 14th District race. The present record leaves unresolved whether the requested investigation will proceed and what, if any, action officials may take.
