Here's Evidence The Chicago PD Is Worse Than You Thought

The city's police department has a long history of failing to hold its officers accountable.


Mollie Reilly
Deputy Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

Posted: 11/25/2015
The release of a video showing the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald -- whom Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot 16 times in October 2014, as the teen was walking away from him -- has made the city's police department an object of national scrutiny, with questions arising about its policies, its practices and its troubled history with the city's communities of color.
Here are some facts and statistics that highlight just how bad things are at the Chicago Police Department:
Chicago tops big cities in fatal police shootings.

According to an analysis by the Better Government Association released in July, Chicago police fatally shot 70 people between 2010 and 2014, more than any other police department in a major U.S. city. When adjusted for population size, Chicago ranks fourth behind Phoenix, Philadelphia and Dallas for this grim statistic. (Phoenix police shot and killed 57 people during the years in question. Philadelphia police killed 54 people, and Dallas police killed 34.) The report also found that Chicago police shot a total of 240 people over that five-year period.
Chicago police did not respond to a request for comment on this and other statistics highlighted in this story.
Black people are killed disproportionately.

The Better Government Association study also found that of 46 of the 70 people fatally shot by Chicago police -- 66 percent -- were black. However, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, just one-third of Chicago's population is black.
There are tons of complaints, but police rarely get in trouble.

Data compiled by the Citizens Police Data Project shows that fewer than 2 percent of the 28,567 complaints filed against the department from March 2011 to September 2015 resulted in discipline. Most officers who do face discipline are suspended for a week or less.
Van Dyke, the officer who shot McDonald, is listed on the CPDP website as having 20 complaints filed against him. None of those complaints have resulted in discipline.
White people are more likely to have their complaints validated.

The complaint data also shows that while black people accounted for 61 percent of the misconduct allegations filed against Chicago police, they accounted for only 25 percent of the sustained complaints. Meanwhile, complaints filed by white people made up 21 percent of the total allegations, but accounted for 58 percent of the sustained complaints.