Public Safety Section Annual Report 2017

Executive Summary

During the fall of 2016, in response to the April 2016 findings and recommendations of the Mayor’s
Police Accountability Task Force, as well as insights from the then-continuing U.S. Department of
Justice Civil Rights Division pattern and practice review of the Chicago Police Department (CPD),
the City of Chicago enacted the first stage of legislative reforms for police accountability with,
among other things, the creation of a dedicated police oversight office within the Office of
Inspector General (OIG), the Office of the Deputy Public Safety Inspector General. The law took
effect in November 2016, with funding appropriated beginning in FY 2017. During 2017, OIG
initiated a national and local effort to seek out and hire highly qualified professionals to staff the
new Public Safety Section (the Section). As a result, the Section is staffed by individuals with
expertise in a vast array of disciplines and backgrounds. This includes professionals with extensive
practical experience in the realms of oversight, policing, civil rights, and community relations. At
the end of 2017, the Section’s 20 full-time dedicated employees included 14 professionals with
graduate degrees, 6 of whom hold PhDs, in disciplines relevant to oversight analysis of police and
police accountability systems. In addition, in order to meet the data-intensive needs of the Section,
OIG increased staffing of its Center for Information Technology & Analytics (CITA) by 25 percent,
with 3 individuals with graduate degrees in data analytics, engineering, and public administration.

OIG has a demonstrated record of performance auditing and investigating government agencies and
programs to promote best practices and root out corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. In recent
years, OIG has taken on investigations of misconduct by police and police oversight personnel,
sworn and unsworn, patrol and managerial, in matters where the previously existing oversight
system had faltered, including investigations into CPD’s investigative handling of the Laquan
McDonald shooting and its investigations of the death of David Koschman. The Audit and Program
Review Section has conducted a host of performance audits of administrative operations of CPD,
including an October 2017 audit of CPD’s management and controls of its massive officer overtime
system. OIG has devoted much of the last year working to develop institutional knowledge and
capacities within the Section to ensure that the same objective lens and professional rigor are
applied to the oversight of the City’s police and police accountability functions.