Public Safety Section Annual Report 2019

Executive Summary

The Public Safety section was established to enhance transparency, accountability, and the quality of oversight of public safety operations in Chicago. Since its inception, the section has steadily worked toward inhabiting its full mandate pursuant to its enabling ordinance, and has undertaken evaluations and reviews of policies, procedures, practices, programs, and training of the agencies under its jurisdiction—the Chicago Police Department (CPD), the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), and the Police Board—as well as the inspection of closed disciplinary investigations conducted by CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs and COPA.

In 2019, the Public Safety section published recommendations and analyses on a broad range of topics, including: CPD’s “gang database,” a supervisory review of body-worn camera footage, and the deployment of School Resource Officers to Chicago Public Schools. Through its inspection of individual closed disciplinary investigations, the section made recommendations to inform and improve future investigations, and recommended the reopening of four materially deficient investigations. The analyses and recommendations arising from these forms of inquiry constitute the Public Safety section’s distinct and potent contribution to Chicago’s police oversight landscape. Furthermore, through its online Information Portal, OIG provides data visualization tools that allow interested parties to analyze public safety-related data. The information and tools provided there enable and support the section’s work in the service of its mandate, including specific reporting and analytical obligations.

Over the course of the year, the Public Safety section has also worked toward robust, meaningful, and responsive engagement with Chicago’s communities. The work is deepened and strengthened by public outreach, direct engagement on issues of public concern, and firsthand involvement with CPD members. The Public Safety section undertakes its work alongside the Independent Monitoring Team (IMT) charged with ensuring compliance with the Consent Decree entered in Illinois v. Chicago, effective March 1, 2019. The Public Safety section and OIG as a whole work closely with the IMT, in the spirit of its charge under the Consent Decree to “coordinate and confer” with an eye toward OIG’s own permanent oversight functions after the period of court monitoring has ended.