11 March 2021

Except Chicago PD Has Been Known to Ignore Policy

So Chicago's Mayor Groot as announced a bunch of "policy changes" to how CPD will handle search warrants. Right. Lightfoot, CPD Announce Changes To Search Warrant Policies; Police To Begin Tracking Wrong Raids Resulting From Faulty Information

She announced "great changes" last year. But I guess the changes weren't that great. This is take 2.

Last year’s change to the search warrant policy required the creation of a log if a raid is carried out at an address different than what is listed on the search warrant. But that doesn’t account for the dozens of wrong raids CBS 2 found, including the one on Young’s home.

That policy did not require a log when officers enter the address listed on the warrant, but learn the information used to obtain the warrant was faulty. That will change with the series of policy changes Lightfoot and Brown are announcing today. CPD now will be required to track all wrong raids, whether the result of officers carrying out a raid at the wrong address, or based on faulty information in a warrant.

This is all well and good. But as I mentioned. Policy isn't always followed. Sergeant Ordered Chicago Police Officers To ‘Kill’ Their Body Cams During Wrong Raid.

That order was in violation of policy. The sergeant in question, Anthony Bruno, should not have issued the order, and none of the officers should have obeyed the order. But he did, and they did. With no consequences for any of them, as far as I can tell.

“We were both handcuffed for about almost an hour,” said Tate, who can be seen on the body camera video wincing in pain while handcuffed and repeatedly saying she the handcuffs hurt.

But not everything that happened during the raid to the family was caught on the police body cameras, because a Chicago police sergeant gave an order to his team. Sgt. Anthony Bruno was caught on those same body cameras saying, “Kill cameras.”

That order came 2.5 minutes into a raid on a home based on a bogus search warrant. Oh, the warrant was requested and approved, it is just that none of the info on the warrant seems to be correct.

The police claim that they are investigating Sgt. Bruno, but have never contacted the family he put through all of that. And since they have their OWN video as evidence that he gave an order in violation of policy, exactly what is left to investigate? How best to sweep this infraction under the rug?

There is more at that first link on the changes to policy. Restrictions on no-knock warrants, changes to procedures before and after. Some attempt at figuring out "what went wrong" on bad warrants or raids on the wrong address. I don't believe much will come of it.

Changes to policy are fine, but if violations of policy don't come with repercussions, you may as well stay home.

As for the extent of the problem, CBS has only listed "dozens" of wrong raids in the 2 or 3 articles I've looked at. They are still searching because police didn't think this data was important and so didn't track it. Track data on mistakes? We only track data that makes us look good! Or something.

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