Chicago

$400,000 Grant for Chicago Police-Misconduct Database

A Chicago organization that has worked to help make allegations of police misconduct more transparent and the data accessible to residents was given a grant Tuesday to expand its work.

The Citizens Police Data Project, which is headed by The Invisible Institute and The Experimental Station, was given a $400,000 Knight News Challenge on Data grant to expand its online database to allow the public to better track and analyze police misconduct reports.

Via Chicago tech project will make police misconduct complaints more accessible @ Chicago Tribune.

THEY KNEW

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he didn’t understand the gravity of Laquan McDonald’s shooting death at the hands of a Chicago police officer until just before the city settled with the teen’s family last spring, and that he wasn’t aware other officers may have falsified reports about the shooting until just after the video was released to the public.

But interviews, official city calendars and emails show in both cases the mayor’s closest aides and City Hall attorneys knew much earlier than that.

Emanuel’s top staffers became keenly aware the McDonald shooting could become a legal and political quagmire in December 2014 — more than three months before the mayor has said he was fully briefed on the issue. And lawyers for McDonald’s family informed Emanuel’s Law Department in March that police officers’ version of what happened differed dramatically from the infamous shooting video — more than eight months before the mayor said he found out….

Via Top Emanuel aides aware of key Laquan McDonald details months before mayor says he knew @ Chicago Tribune.