Chicago police officers will receive brand new face shields which will fit easily over gas masks and seal out any incoming liquids, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Emanuel administration awarded a contract worth nearly $200,000 to a Colorado company for the purchase of more than 3,000 new face shields. more ›

A cougar sighting has the folks at Plesantdale Middle School on high alert. Police scoured the area, but haven't yet found the big cat. more ›

According to a U.S. District Court lawsuit in Chicago, after issuing her a ticket, a Stickney police officer tracked down a woman down to ask her out on a date. more ›

Several court cases in Illinois stand to challenge laws which make it illegal to record interactions with police in public, according to the Chicago Tribune. In 1994, a ban on eavesdropping in Illinois was extended to include “open and obvious audio recordings” of police, even if those recordings take place on a public street. more ›

What is it about the iPhone that turns ordinary people into Gollums hissing for their precious? more ›

The police standoff that cocked up Red and Purple line operation last night is over and now details about what happened in Uptown. more ›

Speculation is centering that the Prairie and Wood stations are the two being targeted for closure. more ›

2nd Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti’s ordinance would expose the disciplinary board’s largely secretive decision-making process to public review. more ›

The Chicago Police Board has recommended Garry McCarthy among two other possible candidates to replace current police superintendent Jody Weis. Although the two other candidates the CPB recommended are Chicago Police Department "insiders," McCarthy is not part of the Chicago police system and also was the only one on Emanuel's "separate" list of top replacements. more ›

Chicago residents will now be able to send photos and videos to 911 operators via their phones, according to a report from the Sun Times. The Office of Emergency Management and Communication began taking images from Chicago residents as part of a pilot program in September and so far has received at least 40 images. Chicago is the first city to pilot such a program. more ›

Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge is set to report to prison Wednesday and he'll be serving his 4-1/2 year sentence at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex near Raleigh, NC. That's the prison that also houses noted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. more ›

A Chicago Police Officer used to walk a beat. He’d get to know the tavern owner, the baker and could nail a collar in no time. Then the department upgraded to cars. Officers chase calls 24 hours a day roaming the city endlessly. Today the CPD is predicting where and when a crime will occur, and quite accurately. more ›

Despite the cruel weather we've been having recently, a record number of people showed up to take the Chicago Police Department's entrance exam at McCormick Place yesterday. Around 9,600 people were able to take the exam during two different sessions. The number of people who showed up for the exam yesterday was more than twice the number of test takers in 2006, when about 4,061 people took the entrance exam. more ›

Chicago Police have been sweeping through the South Side on the hunt for the killers of Officers Michael Flisk, Stephen Peters and David Blake. Police are roaming with automatic rifles, K-9 units, knocking on doors and stopping cars looking for information. Yesterday community volunteers handed out fliers publicizing the $10,000 reward in the case. So far there is a person of interest in Friday's shootings. more ›

There’s only one city service that picks up the phone every time you call. Only one service that will show up at your door any time of the day. Another one of those servicemen died yesterday. Two Chicago Police Officers were murdered this week, totaling six officers who died on duty this year, the most since 1982. more ›

A Chicago police officer saved the life of a 2-year-old Thursday afternoon just has he started his shift in the 17th district. Officer Tom Norberg, a 15 year veteran, was driving east on Montrose Ave. when a car pulled up behind him honking and flashing its lights. He let the car pull alongside side when the driver yelled out that her baby was not breathing. The mother told Norberg that the boy had been eating, but then started coughing and vomiting. more ›

As differing accounts of this weekend's police-involved shooting on the Red Line emerge, so, too, does a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the victim's mother. Police responded to a call of an armed suspect on board a Red Line train early Saturday morning, boarding the train at the Garfield stop. According to police, the suspect, 19-year-old George Lash, tried to fight with the arresting officers and pointed a gun at them, prompting them to shoot Lash, ultimately killing him. But accounts claiming that Lash was unarmed and handcuffed at the time of the shooting surfaced as well and now Lash's mother has filed suit. From the Tribune: more ›

The .45-caliber handgun used to murder Officer Thomas Wortham IV was found to be part of a gun running scheme from Mississippi. Quawi Gates is from the Englewood neighborhood and attended college in Mississippi. The state’s lenient laws and abundant gun shops was too much of a temptation. Gates would have students buy guns for him, which is illegal, and then compensate the purchaser $50-100. more ›

It was reported yesterday that a man brandishing a gun was apprehended and shot by Chicago police on the Garfield/55th Red Line stop which occurred around 1:40am Saturday morning. Now, several witnesses to the event are disputing the police account of what happened at the CTA station. In the police account, the offender began to fight with the police and point a gun at them, which prompted the police to shoot the man. But some witnesses state that the police account is inaccurate, saying that the offender actually appeared to be unarmed and that the shooting was unjustified:

"I didn't see a gun at all," said Natalie Bruce, who said she was on her way home from church when the shooting occurred. "The officers put his hands behind his back. They seemed like they were patting him down, and they tussled a little bit, but they had him pinned against the wall." more ›

After an alleged drug dealer was robbed of his product he called the police to report the theft. Steven Dragon was picked up by the police for being a suspect in a purse snatching incident last January. While Dragon was doing the phony lineup, the police confiscated the half a kilo of cocaine that was in Dragon’s trunk, according to a federal complaint unsealed Thursday, the Sun Times reports. more ›

Chicago police shot and killed an armed man on the CTA Red Line train at the Garfield/55th Street Red Line stop this morning. Police responded to a call about the suspect around 1:40 a.m. When the police approached the Red Line station, a train conductor gave the police a description of man with the gun and also directed the police to where the suspect was last seen on the train. After the police located the man, they confronted him: more ›

Chicago Police officers protested today demanding the resignation of Superintendent Jody Weis and an increase in manpower. More than 300 officers marched for about two hours at police headquarters with signs and slogans that read things like “More police No Weis” and “In case of emergency, run like hell.” The Fraternal Order of Police and many officers believe that Weis is out of touch with rank and file officers, as he was a career FBI agent before Mayor Daley hired him to polish the department’s image in 2008. Weis and the FOP have been at odds all week, each penning critical letters of one another. more ›

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis has apparently had his fill of criticisms and is now lashing out at those who've knocked him. With the odds of him keeping his job growing even dimmer by the day now that Mayor Daley won't seek reelection - not that they were good to begin with - and with thousands of officers planning to protest his leadership on Wednesday, Weis is lashing out at those who have taken shots at him. Weis has taken the Drew Peterson route, writing a lengthy letter to the Sun-Times in which he defends the job he's done - "I have worked hard to repair that trust." - and takes a shot at the CPD union: more ›

New research shows how this fact was lost and muddled through the pages of history. Sgt. Marie Owens started on the Chicago Police Department in 1891, making her the first female officer in the history of the U.S. The title was originally held by Portland, Oregon with their officer starting in1908 after stumping claims from Los Angeles that they were the first -- a woman joined their department in 1910. more ›

What started as an attempted traffic stop on the South Side last night took a violent turn when a suspect used his car to injure three CPD officers and left the suspect dead and a passenger in the car injured. The attempted traffic stop happened just after midnight in the 9100 block of South Halsted Street but the driver fled and later hit another police car involved in the chase. After the car came to a stop, the driver attempted to flee again. Per the Tribune: more ›

In December 2009 Chicago artist Chris Drew set out to break Chicago’s anti-peddling law. He wired himself to audio record the arrest, and when the police found out he was also given a felony eavesdropping charge. Under Illinois law it is illegal for anyone to audio/visually record anything in public or private without all involved parties consenting. Charges of eavesdropping have been increasing lately, most frequently involving citizens recording police officers doing their job. more ›

The alleged driver of a stolen car that struck a police officer has had charges filed against him, while the passenger in the car was released without being charged. Dante Small was charged early Saturday morning with "one count of aggravated battery to a police officer and two counts of attempted murder," according to CBS News. About a week and a half ago, a Chicago police officer was injured during a car chase in the South Side, in which a police officer was struck by a vehicle while in pursuit. CBS News reports that either the injured officer or his partner then fired shots at the runaway vehicle, which injured at least one of the suspects inside the car. The police were able to locate both of the suspects in the vehicle and arrested each suspect not long after the accident. more ›

It has been less than a week since police officer Michael Bailey, who was due for mandatory retirement next month, was gunned down outside of his home in an vehicle robbery attempt. Now, three teens have been arrested "on suspicion they were involved in his murder." The three teens - who are 16, 17, and 18 years old - were all taken into custody earlier, but none has been charged with any crime so far. [UPDATE: According to ABC 7, CPD disputes the report, saying no one has been arrested though someone was questioned in the case.] more ›

Already severely understaffed and reeling from the deaths of three police officers in a two month span, the City of Chicago has promised more police officers but a look at the numbers show it's just a drop in the bucket. A two-year "slowdown" on hiring new police officers has left the department down by 2,300 officers and yet City Hall's big promise? 100 new officers. It's an attempt to do some kind of boosting of numbers and morale after two years of trying to save money on hirings (even as more money was spent on new SUVs). Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said, "The manpower situation in the Chicago Police Department is bad. Guys are out there every day telling us they have to wait for backup. And we're advising them to wait for backup for their own safety." The mayor's spokeswoman, Jacquelyn Heard, said the ball got rolling on the new hires a few weeks ago, prior to this weekend's shooting death of CPD officer Michael Bailey. more ›

Chicago police have seized $160,000 worth of counterfeit Nike athletic shoes, including Air Jordans. Boe Eng, the 43 year-old man who owns the South Loop business where these fake shoes were discovered, has been charged with both theft and unauthorized use of trademarks yesterday. The police were able to take Eng into custody after being tipped off by someone that there was a possibility that counterfeit shoes were being sold to civilians: more ›