The beleaguered USA city of Chicago, struggling to rebuild trust with its citizens following a police shooting scandal, on Friday released video and other materials from more than 100 active investigations of police conduct.
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Fairley’s statement yesterday came in regard to IPRA’s release of a disturbing collection of video and audio files related to officer-involved shootings and Taser use, as well as “incidents of death or great bodily harm… that occur in police custody”.
Craig Futterman, who filed the FOIA request to release the footage of the McDonald shooting, said it was too early to tell if the Chicago Police Department’s move is a true step toward transparency.
Strong was killed. Givens and Dudley were charged with crimes including murder because police said Strong died during the commission of a crime.
The videos of 101 cases, which were recorded by police dashboard cameras, business surveillance cameras or bystanders’ cellphones, were released on Friday, the newspaper said.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (R) and Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson leave a news conference for the third annual Summer of Faith and Action calling for violence prevention in Chicago, Illinois, United States, May 19, 2016.
IPRA was formed in 2007 to investigate problems at Chicago’s police force, which has a history of complaints of abuse.
Emanuel also faced calls for his resignation and has seen his approval ratings nosedive in the aftermath of the release of the McDonald video.
Disciplinary decisions are still pending in this case, as well as all the other cases where video was released by IPRA Friday.
IPRA, which is due to be overhauled in coming months after a mayoral task force blasted its investigations of police misconduct as ineffective, said in the future it would make public large quantities of information about police use of force on a website.
In March, the IPRA launched an historical audit of its own investigation procedures in an effort to regain the public’s trust. (Emanuel has said the city will replace IPRA with a new civilian agency, something that was recommended in his task force’s report.) According to city officials, a half-dozen departments have been working to get the evidence ready for release. (However the written documents contained in each case cache offer the information needed to contextualize the footage.) The agency’s Vimeo page is now populated with 343 videos, which include footage from police dashcams, security cameras, and the cell phones of witnesses.
“Today represents an important first step toward that end”, she continued. The agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct in the city posted the material all at once.
One law enforcement expert sees Chicago’s video portal as a sign of changing times.
“Decades of secrecy and institutional denial should give us reason for skepticism about this, but I look forward to seeing whether this will really be a significant step in the direction of transparency”, Futterman told AP.
Chicago police have been criticized for years for their policy of withholding footage into any incident involving police that was under investigation, both criminal probes and disciplinary hearings.
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“If you have something to address with an officer, address it. End it, so they can move on”, said Chicago FOP President Dean Angelo.
