Police Accountability Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Preventing Wrongful Convictions: Ensuring the Right to Communicate in Cook County

From media depictions of the criminal legal system, most people seem to understand that when you get arrested, you are allowed a phone call and that phone call can get you a lawyer that will advocate for you during police interrogations. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality – especially in...

Lawsuit: Chicago Police Department Relies on Faulty ‘Evidence’ from ShotSpotter to Make Arrests

On July 21, 2022, attorneys from Northwestern University’s MacArthur Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Michael Williams, Daniel Ortiz, and Lucy Parsons Labs against the City of Chicago, Chicago Police Department (CPD) Superintendent David Brown, and several CPD officers. The lawsui...

Dynamics of Drug Possession Charges in Illinois, from Investigatory Stops to Sentences

B A C K G R O U N D Illinois is one of 18 states that makes possession of drugs (except cannabis) a felony in all cases. This means that possession, even of very small amounts of drugs, can lead to serious criminal legal system involvement. Felony arrests lead to pretrial jail time, often bec...

All People Deserve Access to Their Rights – Especially Those as Foundational as the Presumption of Innocence

Cook County leads the nation in exonerations based on false confessions. Between 1972 and 1991, Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge tortured at least 119 people – most of whom were young Black men – in order to force false confessions. Cook County still lives in that legacy: Between January 1989 and...

Policy Statement: Pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance & End “No-Knock” Warrants in Chicago

Introduction: Following the killings of Breonna Taylor and Amir Locke, and the endangerment of Anjanette Young and others from botched police raids, calls for warrant reform have been heard across the country. “No-knock” raids, such as the ones in which Breonna Taylor and Amir Locke were...

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Preventing Wrongful Convictions: Ensuring the Right to Communicate in Cook County￼

Lawsuit: Chicago Police Department Relies on Faulty ‘Evidence’ from ShotSpotter to Make Arrests

Dynamics of Drug Possession Charges in Illinois, from Investigatory Stops to Sentences

All People Deserve Access to Their Rights – Especially Those as Foundational as the Presumption of Innocence

Policy Statement: Pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance & End “No-Knock” Warrants in Chicago

Preventing Wrongful Convictions: Ensuring the Right to Communicate in Cook County