Days before a Gallup poll found confidence in police at historic lows, the Chicago Tribune revealed that a shockingly low number of citizen complaints against police officers go anywhere—and even when police are found at fault, they receive little to no punishment.
After reviewing police records, the Tribune determined that over a four-year period, investigators “sustained” only 800 out of 17,700 complaints—about 4 percent. 60 percent of complaints were disregarded because citizens failed to sign the appropriate affidavits—a procedural requirement one Chicago lawyer called “a tool for them to blow people off.”
The 11 most-often-complained-about officers racked up 253 complaints—including complaints about excessive force—over those four years. Only one of those 11 has been punished, with a five-day suspension.
When found guilty of infractions, almost three quarters of officers received no docked time at all, or were suspended for five days or less.
Police officials objected to the Tribune’s analysis, saying there are complicated factors at play. Officers routinely stack up complaints by working in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods. They said the affidavit law protects them from false complaints. And the Independent Police Review Authority, the city agency that investigates the most serious complaints, said it would be unfair to flag officers for past complaints for which they were cleared.
