[in person] 2nd Police District Council - Bronzeville/Washington Park/Hyde Park

Criminal Justice

Saturday, March 16, 2024
10:30 a.m. — 12:00 p.m. CDT

4351 S Drexel Blvd, Chicago, Illinois 60653 Chicago, IL 60653 (Directions)

Timothy Community Corporation

This is an in-person assignment and will include an additional hour of pay. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK the meeting details and agenda on the day of your assignment, as dates and locations sometimes change.

Pre-Research Resources

City Bureau: “Can the Neighbors We Elect to Police District Councils Redefine Public Safety?”
City Bureau” “Chicago’s New Police District Councils, 4 Months In”
Find My Beat and District: Interactive map of police district boundaries
Chicago Reader/Block Club Chicago: Information about the candidates who ran for this council in the municipal elections
The TRiiBE: “ECPS coalition wins a wide majority of Chicago’s new Police District Council seats”

Check the source website for additional information

Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Note-taking by Caeli Kean

Conflict continues among 2nd Police District Council members.

View notes

Live reporting by Isabella Bonito

Conflict continues among 2nd Police District Council members.

bonitobuilt @bonitobuilt

Hi all! Today I’ll be live-tweeting the 2nd Police Council District’s meeting for #CHIdocumenters @CHIdocumenters . The 2nd district includes the Bronzeville, Washington Park, and Hyde Park community areas.

09:32 AM Mar 16, 2024 CDT

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Each police district council has 3 elected members whose duty is to spend 20 hours/month on improving public safety and police accountability in their district and recommend policies to the CCPSA (Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability) on a citywide level.

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Here is a map of Chicago’s 22 police districts, with credit to Kirk Williamson.

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Here is a helpful graphic that helps further explain the role of the Police District Council. (Credit: 19th Police District Council campaign)

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Here is the agenda for today’s meeting, held at 4341 S Drexel Blvd with a virtual meeting link option also available via Zoom.

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Attached is a photo of the meeting room which stands empty 3 minutes before the scheduled meeting start time of 10:00am.

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Chair Alexander J. Perez apologizes and notes a mistake in the meeting start time on the agenda, noting it should actually start at 10:30am.

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The meeting is called to order at 10:33am by Chair Alexander J. Perez. All three district council members are present: Ephraim Lee (Nominating Committee), Julia Kline (Community Engagement), and Alexander Perez (Chair).

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The meeting commences with a presentation by a representative of Impact for Equity’s Free2Move Coalition titled “The Problem with Traffic Stops in Chicago.”

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The presenter calls attention to pretextual traffic stops, cases when "an officer uses violation of the traffic code as an excuse to pull someone over, when their real motivation is to investigate for signs of criminal activity that they do not have reasonable suspicion of."

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The presenter notes a trend of rising traffic stops across Chicago over the past few years.

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More on Free2Move's data and methodology can be found here: .

free2movechi.org/traffic-stops

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The presenter notes a trend since 2015: that "stop and frisk" stops have decreased and traffic stops have increased. They interpret this shift as a change in CPD strategy since a settlement agreement with ACLU that deterred officers from the misuse of "stop and frisk."

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The coalition believes that CPD strategy is increasing traffic stops as a means to investigate suspicions of criminal activity; that there is an increase of pretextual traffic stops.

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The coalition's data notes that this shift in CPD strategy has been ineffective. Less than 1 percent of traffic stops in 2021 have resulted in the recovery of illegal contraband, according to Free2Move's research.

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The presenter further notes that black drivers are 6x as likely to be stopped citywide. In the 2nd District specifically, a racial discrepancy is further noted: 66% of the driving population is black, yet 87% of stopped drivers are black in the 2nd District.

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In response to the presentation, Council Member Ephraim Lee notes feeling inspired by the presentation and that he would like to join the Free 2 Movement. He expresses concerns that CPD refuses to change its tactics and the difficulties of enacting reform.

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The presenter shares means of action and how to join the @free2movechi movement that hopes to improve Chicago’s traffic safety system. See photo attached.

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@Free2movechi Council Member Julia Line applauds the movement’s efforts to work towards data transparency, and notes that she is working on policy to shift the financial burdens of police misconduct onto CPD instead of taxpayers.

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@Free2movechi The Free2Move coalition shares the following infographic at the meeting:

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@Free2movechi Time for public comment now begins. A speaker joins online and calls for the Police District Council to please invite the Inspector General to speak on data transparency.

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@Free2movechi Many public commenters express confusion on if the CPD is required to talk to the District Council. Julia Kline notes that it is not a true requirement that CPD talks to the council members, which she expresses has been frustrating.

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@Free2movechi A public question about what the council members may know about police misconduct that is less obvious to the public is not directly answered. Chair Perez states that his approach to battling police misconduct has been his regular attendance of CAPS District and Beat meetings.

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@Free2movechi Julia Kline speaks further to how she is happy that the 2nd District Council is ideologically aligned, yet each council member approaches issues of reforming misconduct differently.

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@Free2movechi She notes that her focus is on delving into why misconduct is so persistent despite how much money is being spent on accountability measures. She believes the accountability systems in place are largely broken as settlement cases are not tied to officer behavior modifications.

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@Free2movechi Time for public comment ends. The Council Members now move on to their own comments and announcements.

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@Free2movechi Chair Perez speaks enthusiastically about a community engagement event he is working on in collaboration with Coffee, Mental Health, and Hip Hop to do group therapy sessions for primary black and brown men and formerly incarcerated individuals.

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@Free2movechi Council Member Kline begins her report. She starts by the most pressing issue to her—an act of misconduct she was called about two days ago. She helped to file a COPA (Civilian Office of Police Accountability) misconduct complaint regarding the act.

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@Free2movechi Council Member Kline received a phone call 2 days ago by two sisters. She reports that one sister’s son’s father was murdered on February 4th in front of a banquet hall in the 8th District.

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@Free2movechi It was reported to Council Member Kline that the murderer turned herself in to the police, claiming self-defense. She was released without charges.

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@Free2movechi Council member Kline also understands that two bystanders tried to submit statements to the police but that the police refused to take in their statements.

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@Free2movechi Council member Kline states that she is 98% sure the detective on the case is Kevin Kilroy who she noted to have a high degree of misconduct by information made available by the Invisible Institute.

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@Free2movechi She further clarifies that the sisters believe the detective on the case is Kevin Kilroy. Kline feels confident that the last name Kilroy, but the first name has not been verified.

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@Free2movechi Council Member Kline also notes that Kevin Kilroy is assigned to the 3rd District; the investigation is happening out of the 2nd; the murder happened in the 8th; and the murdered man lived in the 7th.

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@Free2movechi The three council members argue amongst themselves for many minutes about disclosing to the public that there is CCPSA funding forthcoming.

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@Free2movechi The meeting is adjourned at 12:04pm. The next meeting will take place on Thursday, April 18th.

View thread

Attachments

Council details

By India Daniels 3/16/2024

Agency Information

Chicago Police District Councils

See meeting notes for details

www.chicago.gov

See Documenters reporting

Each of the 22 District Councils is made up of three people elected by residents of the police district in regular municipal elections every four years, though anyone can participate in District Council work, and the more people who participate, the more effective the District Councils can be. The first District Council elections occurred in February 2023. Just as Chicagoans vote for a mayor and a local ward Alderperson, they also vote for up to three people to serve on the District Council.

The District Councils have several key roles:

Building stronger connections between the police and the community at the district level, where the community is a true partner in making the neighborhood safer. They can work with the police to address problems and set priorities.
Collaborating in the development and implementation of community policing initiatives.
Holding monthly public meetings, where residents can work on local initiatives rooted in community concerns and priorities. They can also raise and work to address concerns about policing in the district, and increase accountability.
Working with the community to get input on police department policies and practices. Working to develop and expand restorative justice and similar programs in the police district.
Ensuring that the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability gets input from the community, so that the Commission’s work will be based on what people in neighborhoods across the city are concerned about.
Nominating members of the Community Commission. Anyone who serves on the Community Commission must first have the support of elected District Council members.

(Source: Municipal Code of Chicago, 2-80-070(a) and (e))

For a map of police districts, visit https://www.chicagocityscape.com/maps/index.php#/?places_type=chipolicedistrict.