Covered at Reason 24/7: Chicago Blows Through Budget Set Aside for Police Misconduct

Reason

The city of big, windy shoulders seems to have come to terms with the unfortunate habit of its keepers of the peace of beating the stuffing out of any living creatures they come across. Apparently, the Chicago city government budgeted $27 million to settle police misconduct claims for 2013, with th expectation that there would be more than a few such situations. Except … The city has already blown through that cash, and more. Oooh. Police work in Chicago is expensive.

From ABC News:

With three new settlements this week and more lawsuits pending, Chicago's price tag for legal claims against its police force is climbing and has already surpassed the $27 million the city set aside for this year.

The City Council agreed to settle three lawsuits this week for nearly $7 million. That's on top of the more than $32 million aldermen signed off on weeks ago in two police misconduct cases. With three more lawsuits stemming from one of the most shameful chapters in the department's history — the torture of murder suspects by detectives under the command of former Lt. Jon Burge — still in the legal pipeline and two more federal lawsuits filed this week, the total could climb significantly higher.

City law department spokesman Roderick Drew said the city now will use bonds to cover settlements, as it has done in the past.

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Comments

[LTC(ret) John]

No need to worry, Rahm has it all under control!

[Paul.]

Cities have got to realize that if they don't get their police forces under control, it has real, line-item costs to their budgets.

Cities don't have a spending problem, they have a police-lawsuit settlement problem.

[sarcasmic]

That's just an expense of keeping order. Eggs. Omelets.

[Way Of The Crane]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot cheaper just to train cops NOT to violate people's civil rights and to fire the ones that do?

[dave b.]

But all of those stupid civil rights compromise officer safety

[Paul.]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot cheaper just to train cops NOT to violate people's civil rights and to fire the ones that do?

What the fuck kind of trolling crazy talk is this?

[Episiarch]

And all this sends a very clear message to CPD officers: do whatever the fuck you want. The city (meaning the taxpayers) will pay for it and you will keep your job.

[SimpleMan]

This one was in my local news not long ago. http://www.wdrb.com/story/2155.....uct-fine-1

[Almanian!]

Apparently, a little fear and a $1 fine will go a long way to creating order in the old home town...funny that the commenter's name is Choney lulz

Share | FlagTony, I do have children that are grown and were raised in a time that children were taught to fear authority. Parents weren't scared to discipline. Teachers paddled the uncontrollable children and fear was a big determining factor in a child actions. I am not condoning child abuse by no means. I am just saying that it seems these kid's or young adult's have no fear of you, me or authority. That puts them in a uncontrollable state. Not fair to them or anyone else.

SCIENCE.

[GILMORE]

....Budget Set Aside for Police Misconduct

They plan every year to conduct a certain amount of Misconduct.

Its like that end-of-year spending thing that companies do, where if a dept hasn't spent all their annual allocated budget they are at risk of having it lowered the following year. They're just overdoing their misconduct-levels this year so they can get $32m next year. Quotas are a bitch!

NYC police i've spoke to have mentioned that the reason for all the increased stop&frisk; weed arrests (despite official policy of supposedly reducing them) is due to a combination of record-low crime rates...with increasing promotion based on officer "activity levels". They're incentivised to make a certain number of busts per year. With crime so low, they're "forced" to make extensive efforts to find 'crime' elsewhere. I want to help these guys. Outlaw those kids who let their ass hang out their pants! And spitting in the subway. Weed we can leave alone, and improve quality of life to boot. Hell, if we're going to have a dictatorship *anyway*... at least do it right!

[Billy Cole]

This money is set aside to settle past claims. Burge's reign of terror ended in 1991. He's personally cost the city well over $100 million in lawsuits and investigations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge

On the bright side, at least SOME people actually see jail time for torture.

[BakedPenguin]

I've said it before: settlements should come directly from police retirement funds.

[SimpleMan]

Absolutely.

[Ptah-Hotep]

I've said it before: settlements should come directly from police retirement funds.

It should come from the personal assets of those responsible, including their retirement. I am not big on collective punishment, but I could see how it might cause the other officers to rein in their more enthusiastic brethren if they know their retirements are going to take a hit.

[BakedPenguin]

That's why I think it should be collective - it provides a great incentive to end cop omerta.

[Stormy Dragon]

...

Wouldn't collective punishment incentivize INCREASING the cop omerta? Why would you tell the truth about what you saw another officer do if you knew that it meant your retirement gets dinged as punishment?

[Paul.]

Sort of the way a drill sergeant gets one bad apple straightened out. PT the fuck out of the entire platoon when Gomer Pile fucks up.

I like your thinking.

[Invisible Finger]

Who do you think buys these fucking bonds?

[Almanian!]

This reminds me of our safety targets at work every year. 10% improvement in this, 7% improvement in that...

"We need to seriously injure up to 2 people a month to meet our metric! But NO ONE'S BEEN INJURED YET! Someone stick their hand in a machine, stat! We're falling behind!"

"Ummmm..."

Yeah, I know...

[Jordan]

Reason number gazillion why government agents should not have immunity. Send these fuckers to prison and take every last cent they own.

I can't imagine why somebody would not want to be wholly dependent on government for self-defense. It really is a mystery.

[Invisible Finger]

The same reason some people think it makes sense to be 100% dependent on government for transportation.

It's bad enough I have to be somewhat dependent on government for roads and sidewalks. Why the fuck would I want to be dependent on government for the vehicles and the operators, too? At least the road is always there (in various states of repair anyway).

[MisterDamage]

Typically, it's not themselves that they want to be 100% dependent on government transit. It's those dirty poor people who really don't _deserve_ convenient and personalized transportation options.

[BlogimiDei]

I love JPD