Kind of a CPD-heavy day today. University of Chicago Law School professor Craig Futterman released a new study today titled "The Use of Statistical Evidence to Address Police Supervisory and Disciplinary Practices: The Chicago Police Department's Broken System." (Download the .pdf here.) The report is only 40 pages long, and it's un-fucking-believable. In it, Futterman and his co-authors H. Melissa Mather and Melanie Miles outline a blistering analysis of the CPD's "fundamental and systemic" problems, a "culture of not knowing" and a "machinery of denial" when it comes to charges of police abuse. We'll pull out some highlights here, but the entire report is really, really worth reading: more ›

Blago and Mrs. Blago raked in $267,490 last year — $19,000 less than the year before. Still, that's about six times the median household income for Illinois. Todd Stroger told the Trib he'd "make the hard decisions," when it comes to his insane budget. Hard decisions like trying to raise the sales tax in Chicago to 11 percent. Speaking of people who want more of your money, ComEd wants to raise prices, too. And... more ›

The Chicago Police Department showed a drop in the number of solved murders in the city in 2006. Down to 36% from 42% in 2005, the department attributes the drop to new guidelines that detectives must follow, which include taping interrogations and letting a witness know that they are free to leave. more ›

The Chicago Police Department set a goal of 500 guns for the gun return drive held this weekend. They figured around that number of people would take city up on their offer to trade in guns—no questions asked—for a $100 debit card. more ›

Betcha didn't know that there are dozens of companies online who sell lists of cell phone calls. So anyone, for a price, could go and buy a list of all your calls. It's as simple as emailing the phone number and a credit card number and at about $100 - 160 it's not too expensive either. And we hear they have a great turn around time. These companies will get you your information within just a couple days. Also, they provide a variety of services, from getting a list of numbers called from a certain cell number to finding a name, ssn, and address associated with a number. more ›

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Is there other news to discuss outside of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? If there is, we’re having a hard time paying attention to it. Despite occurring some 920 miles away, the tragedy in the Gulf Coast region has already become a local and state issue as the massive loss of life and property, the looming health and energy crises and the breakdown of the rule of law have a ripple effect across the nation.... more ›

Chicagoist doesn’t drive very often and when we do it’s usually because we’re headed out of town on a road trip. So when we overhear traffic reports, we usually pause only long enough to laugh at the poor bastards stuck on the Kennedy as we wonder if we’ll be sitting next to the guy that smells like pee again on the bus this morning. There’s some good news in this morning’s Sun-Times for anyone who... more ›

Over the past four years, Chicago hasn't collected over $96 million in fines from individuals cited for various city violations. According to the Sun-Times (by the way, strike averted) from the beginning of 2004 through Sept. 30, there were uncollected fines totaling $29.2 million and could exceed $38 million in 2004. more ›