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Police Corrupton

In: Social Issues

Submitted By bearnasty
Words 18083
Pages 73
Crime, Corruption and Cover-ups in the Chicago Police Department

Anti-Corruption Report Number 7 January 17, 2013

Authored by: John Hagedorn Bart Kmiecik Dick Simpson Thomas J. Gradel Melissa Mouritsen Zmuda David Sterrett With Ivana Savic Justin Escamilla Magdalena Waluszko Dalibor Jurisic Tricia Chebat

Published by University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Political Science

1 The Chicago Police Department has a legacy of both heroism and corruption. On the one hand, the department’s officers risk their lives on a daily basis to enforce the law, protect the public and preserve the peace. On the other hand, Chicago has a checkered history of police scandals and an embarrassingly long list of police officers who have crossed the line to engage in brutality, corruption and criminal activity. An analysis of five decades of news reports reveals that since 1960, a total of 295 Chicago Police officers have been convicted of serious crimes, such as drug dealing, beatings of civilians, destroying evidence, protecting mobsters, theft and murder. Moreover, the listing of police convicted of crimes undoubtedly underestimates the problem of corruption in the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The list does not include undetected and unreported illegal activity, serious misconduct resulting in internal disciplinary action, and officers who retire rather than face charges. Our analysis of police corruption in Chicago yields four major findings. First, corruption has long persisted within the CPD and continues to be a serious problem. There have been 102 convictions of Chicago police since the beginning of 2000. Second, police officers often resist reporting crimes and misconduct committed by fellow officers. The “blue code of silence,” while difficult to prove, is an integral part of the department’s culture and it exacerbates the corruption problems. However

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