The city of Chicago is expected to release a trove of records – including video, audio, and other media – related to roughly 100 incidents of misconduct by police officers in the city.
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Chicago authorities say in the future they will release video of shootings and other violent incidents involving police within 60 days of the incident. Among the video and recordings released are dozens from police-involved shootings that remain under investigation by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA).
Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law school professor who played a key role in forcing the city to release the McDonald video, said it’s too early to know whether the latest release of material is a sign of progress.
BuzzFeed News will be updating this post throughout the day as the recordings are released.
Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, was critical of the decision to release the videos and documents while the investigations are ongoing.
The release comes amid a fevered call for greater transparency within the city’s police department.
He believes the release is IPRA’s attempt to deflect attention from the poor job it does investigating cases, noting that the civilians handling investigations of police-involved shootings have only a fraction of the training that’s required and the cases often drag on for years. As seen in the video, officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, shot Laquan McDonald 16 times.
The Independent Police Review Authority was formed in 2007 to investigate problems at the Chicago Police Department, which has a history of complaints of excessive force. Since the formal adoption of the policy, IPRA has worked with several city agencies to develop a new online case portal to facilitate the release of the case materials.
Most of the cases are marked “firearm discharge” and relate to officer-involved shootings, while a handful relate to “incident in police custody”, meaning a suspect suffered significant bodily injury or death while being arrested or in detention.
Fairley added, “the release of these materials has no bearing and makes no representation about the status or outcome of any of the underlying IPRA investigations”.
The evidence includes clips from police body cameras, dash cams, surveillance videos, and cell phones. At a news conference Friday, IPRA boss Sharon Fairley stressed that videos do not paint a complete picture of what happened in each incident, and many lack context.
One of the cases that’s going up on the site is the June 2011 fatal shooting of an unarmed Flint Farmer, who was killed as he lay prone on the ground by an officer who claimed to have mistaken Farmer’s cellphone for a gun.
Givens and Dudley were convicted of murder for the death of their accomplice Strong, aggravated battery of a peace officer, burglary, and possession of a stolen vehicle following.
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A 2014 video shows another officer hitting a bystander. Police were called to a bus stop on the city’s South Side shortly after receiving calls from passengers on a bus that Jamison had assaulted passengers and the driver. That video, released in November, prompted intense protests over both what was on the recording and the fact that it took more than a year – and a lawsuit – for the city to release it. The city recently agreed to pay the woman $50,000 in a settlement.
