The Chicago Police Department is under siege
Why would anyone want to become or remain a police officer today? Much of the mainstream media, echoing radical far-left narratives, depicts policing in Chicago as systemically racist, claiming that higher rates of minorities (Black and Latino) being killed, arrested, or stopped by police — relative to their share of the city’s population — proves discrimination. Meanwhile, police misconduct is blamed for the billions of dollars in lawsuits the city has paid, will continue to pay, and can ill-afford. In truth, the public — especially taxpayers — are being taken for a ride.
Critics focus on the disproportionate number of minorities, especially Black people, killed, arrested, or stopped by police, but they deliberately ignore critical facts: Nearly 95 percent of those murdered in Chicago, and the vast majority of shooting victims, are residents of overwhelmingly Black, and to a lesser extent, Latino neighborhoods. Not only do Chicago’s Black and Hispanic communities house by far the most murder victims, but city records and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports prove that most of the perpetrators of such violence in Chicago come from the same demographic groups. This data dramatically undermines the claim that police are deliberately targeting Black residents. Indeed, in order to protect the law-abiding citizens of these communities, police appropriately focus a heavier police presence in high-crime areas, including increased patrols, which leads to far more frequent and dangerous confrontations than in less dangerous neighborhoods throughout Chicago.
Ironically, if one used FBI Table 6 “Expanded Homicide Data” to compare murders by race on a per-capita basis, it might seem that police actually "over-police" White communities — hardly an argument the critics care to make.
Then there are lawsuits. So-called criminal justice reformers often blame settlements and judgments against the Chicago Police Department (CPD) on corruption or misconduct. However, those “reformers” rarely ask why Chicago has seen almost half the nation’s reversals of criminal convictions-which almost always result in multi-million-dollar lawsuits. Nor do they probe the dramatic spike in such cases during Kim Foxx’s two terms as Cook County State’s Attorney, during which her office became an advocacy arm for violent offenders, often collaborating with private attorneys who specialize in lawsuits against police.
Foxx brokered deals with a shadowy “Lawyers Committee” — made up of private plaintiffs’ attorneys — who were sometimes deputized as “Special Assistant State’s Attorneys.” These lawyers worked to overturn murder convictions based on allegations of police misconduct, without regard to whether the defendant had committed the underlying murder. Her office’s Conviction Integrity Unit routinely agreed to award “Certificates of Innocence” to defendants in cases lacking strong evidence of innocence, opening the floodgates to costly lawsuits. Stunningly, a Foxx representative reluctantly admitted in federal court that innocence often was not even a criteria that Foxx considered in determining whether to agree to a certificate of innocence.
This system proved highly lucrative for both the plaintiffs’ attorneys and some convicted criminals, as more and more law firms turned to suing the CPD. Since 2008, Chicago taxpayers have spent over $1.1 billion on settlements and verdicts relating to police misconduct, with the annual bills rising dramatically during the Foxx administration. From 2019 to 2023 alone, taxpayers paid $384.2 million in settlements, damages, lawyers’ fees, and related costs — nearly a third of all payouts over the last sixteen years.
Virtually no one in the press asks whether recipients of these settlements were actually innocent or if the settlement sizes are justified. Since 2000, the city has paid out over $700 million in lawsuits where innocence was not established, but police misconduct was alleged — routinely making multi-millionaires out of violent felons. Chicago now faces over 200 wrongful conviction lawsuits with potential liabilities estimated in the billions.
The city’s most recent settlement of Jackie Wilson’s case is one of the prime examples. Last year, Cook County approved a tax-free $17 million payout to Jackie, whose conviction for the horrific 1982 murder of Chicago Police Officer Richard O’Brien after a traffic stop was overturned in 2018, after which Foxx dropped all charges. By Jackie’s own admission, he was driving the car that officers O’Brien and William Fahey stopped after which Jackie’s brother Andrew Wilson shot and killed both officers in cold blood. Foxx dropped the charges in 2020 amidst questions as to whether Jackie’s confessions to knowing that Andrew intended to shoot the officers were false and coerced.
But Foxx didn’t stop at dropping the charges. Incredibly, and despite Jackie’s undeniable presence for the murders and ensuing escape with his brother, Foxx agreed to a certificate of innocence, which Wilson then used in his federal lawsuit to persuade Cook County to pay the $17 million. Even more incredibly, just last week the City Council agreed to settle Jackie’s lawsuit against Chicago and added another $12.5 million taxpayer funded and tax-free dollars to his insane riches, combined with the County’s settlement to place Jackie Wilson among Chicago’s very wealthiest residents.
Meanwhile, the SAFE-T Act and CPD’s ongoing Consent Decree implementation have introduced new regulations and mandates, fueling yet more litigation. Police pursuits, for example, have become a new “gold rush” for trial attorneys. In the last year alone, the city has approved over $160 million to settle just five civil claims related to police chases. Look for litigation to begin targeting not only police practices but also alleged departmental negligence — such as in the tragic, accidental shooting of Officer Krystle Rivera.
The firm that represents the Rivera family is already suggesting CPD training and supervision or "rogue policing” may be the reason for her death. No doubt the Consent Decree report card will be mined. Suing on behalf of families of officers who committed suicide, on the grounds that CPD was negligent in not providing the proper counseling and mental health support, is likely next as the trial lawyers seek the next taxpayer gold vein.
Another recurring narrative is that the CPD’s failure to implement most of the Consent Decree’s 2017 recommendations has become a ready-made excuse for enormous settlement payouts — from wrongful convictions to injuries during police pursuits. Instead of producing real reform, the Consent Decree has become an expensive industry unto itself, with tens of millions spent annually on consultants and monitors — at times more than the budget for all officers patrolling the CTA.
According to the Consent Decree monitor’s most recent report, CPD is in full compliance with just 16 percent of the decree’s 504 recommendations, with 42 percent in "secondary compliance," 34 percent in "preliminary compliance," and seven percent with no progress. The Monitor’s own law firm has billed the city over $19 million to date; an ever-growing fleet of consultants collect millions more every year. With the Monitor alone empowered to decide what compliance means and when the decree might be lifted, there’s little incentive to end this lucrative cycle soon.
In effect, the Consent Decree has become the foundation of a sprawling "Criminal Industrial Complex" — a network of lawyers, advocates, researchers, consultants, and monitors profiting from a never-ending cycle of “reform.” Their financial interests are best served by perpetuating the argument that CPD resists change. The Consent Decree is less a mechanism for genuine accountability than a bureaucratic report card created to sustain continued oversight and costs and to help make the case for lawsuits brought against the CPD.
The myth that Chicago Police are deliberately targeting minorities — especially Black residents — must be exposed and rejected. Wrongful conviction cases need to be rigorously challenged by the city, and the details of these cases should be made fully transparent to the public. Chicago is uniquely burdened within Illinois and, indeed, the nation by an arrangement that abuses the justice system and makes a mockery of true reform. It is vital to establish a cap on jury verdicts and impose far stricter scrutiny on lawsuits.
What Chicago really needs is not the current Consent Decree, but a new federal decree — one designed to protect public safety, uphold accountability, and defend taxpayers. This decree should extend to the Sheriff’s Office and Cook County courts, both of which have been complicit in withholding and manipulating crime data, concealing the real impact of pretrial reforms, failing to enforce Orders of Protection, and failing to protect witnesses, victims, and police officers. Many in local government have enabled the release of violent criminals and facilitated enormous settlements funded by city taxpayers.
If we do not act, the only people left to protect Chicago’s communities from violence and chaos will be the ones profiting from the system’s perpetual dysfunction.
