NEW WEB TOOL SEEKS TO CURB POLICE MISCONDUCT

NEW WEB TOOL SEEKS TO CURB POLICE MISCONDUCT

In support of demands for greater police accountability in Chicago and nationwide, Illinois nonprofit The Lucy Parsons Labs is launching “Open Oversight,” an interactive web tool that makes it easier for Chicago residents to file complaints against police officers.

Using OpenOversight, members of the public can search for the names and badge numbers of Chicago police they have negative interactions with based on where that interaction took place and the officer's estimated age, race and gender. Using this information, the OpenOversight web application returns a digital gallery of potential matches and, when possible, includes pictures of officers in uniform to assist in identification.

"The deck is stacked against people harmed by Chicago police," says Jennifer Helsby, CTO of the Lucy Parsons Labs and lead developer on the OpenOversight project." Despite a long history of proven abuses, including torture, Chicago police are almost never held accountable for misconduct or crimes they commit. To file a misconduct complaint, the burden is on the public to provide as much detailed data about the officer as possible. OpenOversight aims to empower Chicagoans with tools that make it easier to identify officers and hold them accountable," Helsby said in a released statement.

As the growing number of cases involving police misconduct continues to make its way front and center across the country, there is an outcry for change as to how law enforcement handles the general public. According to mappingpoliceviolence.org, police killed at least 102 unarmed African Americans in 2015. The site also informs that nearly 1 in 3 African Americans killed by police in 2015 were identified as unarmed, though the actual number is likely higher due to underreporting.

In Chicago, City Council took its own steps recently to confront the growing concern of police brutality. In a 39-8 vote, the council passed the Civilian Office of Police Accountability ordinance or (COPA). COPA replaces the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and arose after a video showed Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. Van Dyke, who is being charged criminally with the shooting death of McDonald, was suspended from his job without pay since being charged with McDonald’s death. COPA promises to address incidents such as what occurred in the McDonald case.

COPA’S main job will be to investigate police misconduct, while the new agency will also have subpoena power. Additionally, a new position for an independent Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety charged with auditing the entire police accountability system was created. The Inspector General will also be charged with identifying patterns and practices by the Chicago Police Department that violate residents’ constitutional rights, according to cityofchicago. org.

OpenOversight uses publicly available data from Freedom of Information Act requests, Chicago police department social media accounts and Flickr. Currently, the OpenOversight database has demographic data on every Chicago police officer and photos of about one percent of officers.

OpenOversight also uses data related to Officers' performances of their duties as public servants employed by the City of Chicago; it does not include private information such as driver’s license records, home addresses, and criminal records, according to a released statement.

To file a police complaint in Chicago, a member of the public needs to know as much detailed data about the officer as possible. Based on complaints data from the Invisible Institute, from March 2011 - March 2015, 28% of complaints (4,000 total complaints) were immediately dropped due to no officer identification, according to the Citizen Police Data Project as cited in a Lucy Parsons Labs press release. Moreover, the press release informed that all complaints against officers must be supported by a sworn affidavit. False complaints can result in perjury charges, a Class 3 felony.

But less than 2% of the 28,567 complaints filed against the Chicago police department from March 2011 to September 2015 resulted in discipline. Most officers who do face discipline are suspended for a week or less, according to the Citizens Police Data Project as cited in a Lucy Parsons Labs press release.

Complaints against Chicago police officers have also been expensive for the city with over $500 million from 2004 to 2014 being spent on settlements, legal fees and other costs, reports the Better Government Association.

"We're hoping the public launch of OpenOversight will mean more images and more volunteers," says Helsby. "Right now we have photographs for one percent of the officers in the department and we need the public's help to obtain more. We are looking for pictures of officers in uniform, in public spaces, and who have their name and/or badge number clearly displayed," said Helsby in a released statement.

While some city council members voted for COPA as a way to deal with police brutality and accountability in the city, others were against it. Council member, Leslie Hairston Aldermen, for the 5th Ward, who voted against COPA expressed concerns over the transparency of the new agency. “You can’t have the agency charged with investigating police be less than fully transparent. Unless the agency is fully transparent, there’s no way it can be effective, and earn the public’s trust. Nothing in the mayor’s ordinance provides any more transparency than IPRA,” Hairston stated. Earlier this year, Hairston created the Citizen Police Monitor Ordinance, which she felt could offer a stronger enforcement of police accountability and transparency, according to a 5th Ward office press release. Voting in favor of COPA was Alderman Michelle Harris of the 8th Ward who said, “This proposed new entity has been reviewed and subsequently modified extensively following considerable input by civic groups, government officials, aldermen and the community. Keep in mind that this comes in the wake of months of debate, demonstrations, public meetings and council hearings. I believed that the time had come to move forward, so that we can start implementing the changes, and addressing the challenges between the police and the community in a positive, proactive manner,” Harris said.

Still, other community leaders and groups, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., weren’t completely sold on COPA. Before a vote was taken on the ordinance, Jackson said in a press release, "Rainbow PUSH has been advocating for real and independent community oversight of the police for decades...This ordinance comes nowhere near that goal.”

The ordinance lacks at least three crucial ingredients for meaningful reform, Jackson continued in the release, including community endorsement, independent oversight and power to punish police abuse. The delay of creating a civilian oversight board until next year was an additional complaint cited by critics.

While the battle continues to find solutions to combat police brutality and misconduct in the city, OpenOversight is reportedly the first project of its kind in the United States that is taking proactive steps which allow members of the public to identify and report problem police officers. The tool has been released as a free and open source software so others can launch similar police accountability projects in their own cities. The software is available for download on GitHub. https://github.com/lucyparsons/OpenOversight.

Safiyyah P. Muhammad

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