Name: Illinois Supreme Court Rules Police Complaint Files Should Be Saved
Brand: wbez.org
SKU: wbez-org-28
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Illinois Supreme Court Rules Police Complaint Files Should Be Saved

preview

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an effort by a Chicago police union to force the destruction of thousands of police complaint records that are more than five years old. The decision was a victory to police accountability advocates who say the records can help identify problematic officers and patterns of abuse.The opinion came in response to a legal challenge from the police union that represents about 12,000 rank-and-file Chicago cops. The union was seeking to enforce a part of its contract with the city that requires old police complaint files be destroyed.The city of Chicago had argued that despite the contract language, judge after judge had ruled that the destruction of the records went against the interests of the public and so the files must be preserved.In Thursday’s decision, which was issued by a seven to one vote, Illinois’ highest court sided with those past rulings, saying the contract language conflicts with an overriding state law that demands the preservation of important public records.Justice Lloyd Karmeier wrote the destruction of the complaint records would violate “an explicit, well-defined, and dominant public policy.”Advocates for police accountability had the police complaint files would seriously hinder efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department and make it much harder to hold individual officers accountable.But the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police had argued that if the city wanted to preserve the records, it should renegotiate the contract, not ignore it.Union president John Catanzara said it was unfair for officers to be followed forever by long-past allegations, especially ones in which there was insufficient evidence of misconduct.“If you have a not-sustained complaint, why should that stay in your file forever?” Catanzara said in an interview last week with WBEZ.Justice Thomas Kilbride was the lone dissenting vote.He wrote that his “disagreement with the majority has nothing to do with the records that are the subject of this appeal. I firmly believe that police misconduct must be rooted out, and I would vehemently oppose the indiscriminate destruction of police misconduct records.”However, Kilbride said in his dissenting opinion that an arbitrator had found in favor of the union and that the validity of arbitration awards was “a fundamental principle of labor law.”Patrick Smith is a reporter on WBEZ’s Criminal Justice Desk. Follow him . Email him at .

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an effort by a Chicago police union to force the destruction of thousands of police complaint records that are more than five years old. The decision was a victory to police accountability advocates who say the records can help identify problematic officers and patterns of abuse.The opinion came in response to a legal challenge from the police union that represents about 12,000 rank-and-file Chicago cops. The union was seeking to enforce a part of its contract with the city that requires old police complaint files be destroyed.The city of...

public

By Patrick Smith

wbez.org

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Illinois Supreme Court Rules Police Complaint Files Should Be Saved

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS