|
It’s a new week. Start it off right with these stories from WTTW News. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
(WTTW News) |
|
The agency tasked with investigating misconduct by Chicago police officers identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and unprofessional stops of Black people in a downtown police district, according to a document obtained by WTTW News.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is better known as COPA, received more than 50 complaints that tactical team officers assigned to patrol Lincoln Park, West Town, Old Town, River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast and parts of Logan Square conducted “problematic” traffic stops and searches in 2024, according to a letter from Steffany Hreno, COPA’s director of investigations, to the head of Near North (18th) Police District.
What the letter says:
More than 90% of the complaints investigated by COPA were sparked by officers’ decisions to pull over Black people, according to the letter.
“While COPA recognizes that some of these street stops and traffic stops may have been justified, in their totality, the racial disparity in the stops may be indicative of implicit bias and/or racial profiling,” according to the letter to former 18th District Commander Michael Barz.
The officers also engaged in “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct” that violates department policy, which included the “use of profanities, insults and threats of force,” according to the letter, which said some of the inappropriate conduct was witnessed by their direct supervisor, Sgt. Erick Seng.
The eight officers named in COPA’s letter have been named in 13 lawsuits filed by Chicago drivers who said they were improperly stopped and searched near the North Michigan Avenue shopping district because they are Black, according to an analysis of court records by WTTW News.
Four members of the tactical team named in COPA’s letter have been stripped of their police powers, according to a department spokesperson.
Chicago taxpayers have paid a combined $378,000 to resolve six of those lawsuits, records show. Each of the settlements were authorized by Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry and did not require City Council approval.
Read the full letter here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
A Department of Homeland Security sign is pictured in a file photo. |
|
In an October interview with a downstate radio station, state Sen. Terri Bryant said she gave a list of undocumented individuals currently being held in Illinois state prisons to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
“If Gov. Pritzker doesn’t want to do his job then get out of the way and let the people who do want to do their jobs come in and do it,” Bryant said during the radio interview. “Gov. Pritzker says that he wants the worst of the worst taken out of this state — I gave a list to Kristi Noem of 12 individuals who are locked up in the Department of Corrections who are illegal immigrants locked up in the department.”
In an interview with WTTW News, Bryant, a Republican from Murphysboro, said she doesn’t remember how she obtained the list. But earlier this year, she asked Illinois Department of Corrections staff to contact her if they knew about undocumented people she can report to ICE.
Some pushback:
That ask is “hugely problematic” for Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the prison watchdog group the John Howard Association.
“Targeting individuals in a way that is detrimental to communities, to our criminal legal system, to our prison system does not strike me as a great use of anybody’s time or a reasonable thing to be doing,” Vollen-Katz said.
In response, a spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker's office stated that “Senator Bryant is trying to score political points as she ignores the fact that federal agents are unlawfully detaining U.S. citizens that are Black and Brown and have never committed a crime, as opposed to actually detaining ‘the worst of the worst.’”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
(WTTW News) |
|
City crews have replaced less than 4% of the more than 400,000 lead service lines responsible for contaminating Chicagoans’ tap water since the effort began five years ago, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Water Management told members of the Chicago City Council Thursday.
City crews are going to have to sharply increase efforts to remove the lines from homes and two- and four-flats to comply with state and federal requirements to remove the lines that can pollute drinking and bathing water, Department of Water Management Commissioner Randy Conner said during his department’s annual budget hearing before the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee.
“We need to ramp up ‘til we get to a place where we can get to be able to complete the federal mandate for us to replace them,” Conner said.
Approximately 7,000 of those lines have been replaced this year and plans call for another 10,000 to be replaced next year, Conner said. It will cost $300 million to replace 10,000 lines in 2026, Conner said.
In 2027, crews must replace 15,000 lead-service lines, with another 19,000 lead-service lines replaced in 2028 to meet federal mandates, Conner said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
The city is expanding vaccination and community engagement efforts to address a mpox outbreak in Chicago, which has seen more than 130 cases since June, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back in the Day: October 27, 1985 - Chicago Bears Improve to 8-0 With Dominant Win Over Vikings
|
|
Because it’s the 40th anniversary of the Chicago Bears' best-ever season, the 1985 campaign is getting a lot of entries in the Daily Chicagoan’s Back in the Day series. With so many good memories to draw from, we’re not getting sick of it. On this day 40 years, the Bears became the only undefeated team in the NFL with a dominant 27-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Jim McMahon threw two touchdown passes, the defense returned an interception for a TD and kicker Kevin Butler aced his two field goals. After the game, tackle Keith Van Horne told the Chicago Tribune, “We should have scored 40 points.” |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Learn about sponsorship opportunities. |
|
|
|
This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings
|
|
Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
Show Up Chicago
Part "combination community gathering, cocktail hour, and political panel show," this month's Show Up Chicago at the Hideout will feature Baltazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council and Tiffany Walden of the Triibe. It's free and starts at 7 p.m. on Monday. More details can be found here.
City Club of Chicago
Join City Club of Chicago on Wednesday for a roundtable discussion called "Fighting Economic Blight: Introducing a Statewide Model for Betting on Main Street" with attorneys S.L. Owens, esq, Sam Owens, esq, and Jason Lee Garcia, esq. Speakers will discuss "an emerging statewide model for fighting economic blight through entrepreneurship." Tickets and further details can be found here.
City Club of Chicago
Join City of Club of Chicago on Thursday for a roundtable discussion called "West Side United: Advancing Health Equity in Chicago." CEOs and leaders of the hospital collective that includes RUSH, Lurie Children’s, Cook County Health, Sinai Chicago, UI Health and more will "discuss their ongoing commitment to Chicago’s West Side and their vision for the future." Tickets and further details can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What's the best Halloween costume you’ve ever seen? Bonus points if it was Chicago-themed.
|
|
|
|
Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
5:30 PM | 10:00 PM |
|
|
|
|
Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more. |
|
Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
|
|
|
|
