ALVAREZ SERVES AS MEMBER OF COMMITTEE THAT PROVIDES BLUEPRINT FOR REINING IN ROGUE COPS

On Oct. 10, Mayor Daley announced the resignation of the head of OPS, and the formation of a panel to help select the next head of the agency and to suggest reforms. The chairman of the panel is former police Supt. Terry Hillard. The other members are Rita Fry, former Cook County public defender; the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church; Andre Grant, an attorney who has repeatedly sued the Police Department, and Juan Rangel, director of the United Neighborhood Association.

A measure of perspective is provided by a similar occasion nine years ago. Then as now, Daley was confronted with an emerging police scandal. The circumstances were strikingly similar. In recent months, four tactical officers from the Englewood District have been convicted in federal court on charges of robbing drug dealers; seven Special Operation Section officers face an array of charges in state court, and two tactical officers from the Morgan Park District were indicted after being caught in an FBI sting stealing money from storage lockers they thought had been rented by a drug dealer. More indictments are expected.

In 1997, seven tactical officers in the Austin District and three in the Gresham District were accused of robbing drug dealers. Daley responded by creating the Commission on Police Integrity to investigate the underlying causes of the scandal and make recommendations for reform.

The commission was similar in composition and flavor to the current panel. Led by former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, it included Sharon Gist Gilliam, former city budget director and current head of the Chicago Housing Authority; Fred Rice, former superintendent of police, and Anita Alvarez of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

In November 1997, the commission presented its report to Daley. It made several key recommendations.

Recommendation: The CPD should institute a “fully computerized” early-warning system to identify officers engaged in misconduct. “The premise is simple,” the commission observed. “Small problems become big ones if left unattended.” The 10 Austin and Gresham officers whose crimes precipitated the scandal had accumulated 133 complaints in their careers (only five of which were sustained) — an average of 13 complaints per officer. An effective early-warning system, the commission concluded, would have detected patterns of misconduct and prevented some of the crimes they subsequently committed.

Current status: The Police Department still does not track patterns of abusive behavior. It has sought to portray recent indictments as evidence the system is working, but in every instance the indicted officers were identified by means other than internal CPD investigations. As in 1997, the absence of an effective early- warning system is revealed by the fact that various of the officers facing criminal charges had accumulated citizen complaints alleging abuses consistent with the pattern involved in the criminal case, but never received intervention and/or discipline.

The city has long promised a computerized system for tracking citizen complaints. On July 21, Daley went so far as to say that such a system is “in place.” The reality is that it remains in the planning stage and has not been implemented.

Recommendation: The department should provide close supervision of tactical units assigned to narcotics enforcement because “the corruption problem in law enforcement today is inextricably linked to the flourishing narcotics trade.”

Current status: Police scandals in Chicago and elsewhere have almost always, like the current cases, involved elite tactical units engaged in “the war on drugs.” Yet these units continue to receive relatively little supervision.

Recommendation: The department should track patterns with respect to groups of officers as well as individuals. “Corrupt police officers,” stated the commission, “tend to band together in groups.”

Current status: Police officials responsible for internal investigations recently acknowledged that they do not track complaints by units or groups of officers.

As we await the recommendations of the current panel, we would do well to recall the fate of the Commission on Police Integrity. Daley welcomed its report in 1997 as “an excellent blueprint for change.” Today, nearly a decade later, its principal recommendations remain unimplemented.

Chicago writer Jamie Kalven is working on a book on patterns of police abuse.