#216 Settling for misconduct

Between 2012 and 2015, the City of Chicago spent more than $210 million for police misconduct lawsuits. Bond interest more than doubles the financial cost to taxpayers – to say nothing of the social and individual costs incurred when police violate citizens’ civil rights.

Yet, unlike some other major cities, Chicago doesn’t have a database to analyze police lawsuits for trends, identify the officers most frequently sued, or determine ways to reduce both the cost of the cases and officer misconduct.

Last month, The Chicago Reporter built a database of these lawsuits and published it. Database reporter Jonah Newman and data editor Matt Kiefer will explain why the Reporter pursued this project, how the small non-profit was able to piece together thousands of records from various sources, and what the public can learn from the database.