The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has published the final report in a series from its inquiry into the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) service of residential search warrants. OIG found that, to date, CPD’s maintenance of search warrant files has been incomplete, paper-based, and decentralized, with records housed by individual units and, at times, individual members. CPD was not able to effectively track so-called “wrong raids.” Further, OIG found that unsuccessful residential search warrants were marked by inconsistent and insufficient pre-service investigations.
To reach these conclusions, OIG analyzed CPD’s processes — including the development, approval, and service of search warrants, files, and policy revisions made between 2017 and 2021 to assess whether the Department has:
- evaluated search warrants that resulted in wrong raids
- developed pre-service investigative processes to ensure that the warrant is being served to the correct individual at the correct location, and,
- addressed risks associated with wrong raids.
In January 2023, CPD posted draft revisions to its search warrants policy and forms on the Department’s Policy Review Forum webpage for public review and comment. As of this writing, these changes have not yet taken effect, and remain open for public comment. CPD’s plans for a new search warrants policy, forms, and data system may improve its tracking of wrong raids, guidance for pre-service investigations, and completeness of record keeping.
“Chicago has learned painful lessons over the last several years about what happens when the search warrants go wrong. The raid on the home of Anjanette Young laid bare deep deficits in CPD’s policies and practices around the service of residential search warrants,” said Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. “In this report, the third and final one arising from our long-term inquiry into this topic, we identify historical shortcomings and failures, and look and how and where the changes CPD has proposed to its policies might address them. Plainly, CPD and the City must move swiftly on this, an issue which has driven so much distrust.”
OIG published two interim reports in advance of this final report: first, in January 2021, recommending urgent changes to the Department’s search warrants policy; and second, in May 2021, analyzing data on CPD’s residential search warrants.
Read the Report
Read the full report, released on June 28, 2023: Final Report: Chicago Police Department’s Search Warrant Process.
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