The CPD wants you to be on the look out for people with maps, people taking pictures, and anyone who looks like he or she doesn't belong. No, not an anti-tourism initiative. An anti-terrorism one. [Via boingboing, which is kind of like saying "via the internet."] more ›

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 ›

Will San Fransisco adopt our police surveillance strategies? Not likely, according to this comparison. The biggest difference right now is that SF police are just recording the action; Chicago police are actually moving the cameras, too. In an emergency operations center one recent Saturday night, a civilian former police officer sat in front of four monitors and 16 larger screens covering a wall, conducting "missions," whirling and zooming cameras in eight neighborhoods that had seen... more ›

"Old St. Mary's" via mattsabo17. 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 ›

Chicago residents with any sort of institutional memory shouldn't be surprised by the news, but it still upsetting to hear, officially, that this city beats out New York AND L.A. for the highest rate of police shootings. It's not the kind of list we want to be topping. more ›

The New York Times reported yesterday that the Chicago Police Department has produced five ten-minute videos on the cultures of Sikhs, Buddists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims. The videos, which have been favorable received by these Chicago communities, are thought to be a first for any police department in the U.S. A surprising fact, especially for anyone who has ever had to sit through mind-numbing (but very important!) cultural sensitivity training videos in any large insitution.... more ›