single in kind morning last year, C...

single in kind morning last year, Calvin R Mitchell Sr went to a local dollar discount store to purchase a fan and beat the July heat in his small, close Uptown studio apartment. On his way back abiding-place two police officers stopped him.

common asked, "'You got a receipt for this fan?'" Mitchell recalled. Before he could achieve it out of his suffer he said, one of the cop handcuffed him. Mitchell was taken to the police station at 5400 N Lincoln Ave. and held for 13 hours without being charged. "I don't steal. I've worked all my life," said Mitchell, a 51-year-old grandfather and retired employee of the color County Recorder of Deeds's Office. The dollar store proprietor later confirmed that Mitchell had paid for his purchase.

Ten days after the incident, Mitchell, then a regular participant in neighborhood community policing meetings, filed complaints with the Chicago Police Department's Internal Affairs Division, which is staffed by means of police officers, and the Office of Professional Standards, the civilian carcass that investigates excessive force by dint of officers.

Sixteen month later, the case still hasn't been resolved

Mitchell is wary of by what mode civilian complaints are dealt with according to the department, which includes 13705 officers. "They're going to interview me and investigate me--they're not bear uponed about what happened to me" he said.

Like Mitchell, many citizens are suspicious of the excessive force investigations that pretend to be understood by solitary those involved with their inner workings. Officials confirmed that OP scrutinizes the two the victim and the officer accused, and its [i]modus operandi[/i]s are dictated in large part at the police officers' union. between the sides of an analysis of OPS investigations, the Reporter set that the officers accused in the cases were provided lawyers before they suited to charges against them in writing, while in nearly each case victims were questioned without lawyers. Investigations frequently lasted more than 100 days and were clos or suspended when witnesses could not be erect or witnesses' testimonies conflicted.

in consequence of this process, 6 percent of excessive force complaints were upheld in a five-year period--a number many citizens find too cheap As a result, some family with complaints against officers bypass the agency altogether, and file civil suits, costing taxpayers $20 million in discharges as of Aug. 31 of this year, up from $55 million in 1998 City officials and aldermen have not replyed to the rising numbers despite the city's shrinking budget

Between 1998 and 2002--the principally recent year for which information is available--citizens made 13703 charges against officers. OP raise evidence to support 847 of them. During the same period, the city resolv 935 civil cases alleging excessive force at Chicago police officers that will charge the city $61.2 million. The Chicago Reporter researched 489 of the suits, identifying 767 individual officers by the agency of their badge numbers. Of those, 109 were originate in more than one suit-those cases alone preciousness the city $3.7 million.

"We've got to do something--we can't inflict our head in the sand and feign that everything is all right if we're paying $15 $20 $25 million a year in succession these brutality cases," said Howard Brookins, alderman of the southern Side's 21st Ward.

Brookins, an attorney who has depicted victims in suits against the city for at least 12 years, last year introduced a "police accountability ordinance" in the city council. The measure, which has failed to attract support from greatest in number other aldermen, would require the police department to identify and discipline those who have been charged with excessive force more than one time That's what OPS is suppos to be doing, further it doesn't because it isn't independent, Brookins said.

Tisa Morris, the office's chief administrator, throw asideed the charge. "I follow an oath, and we have ethics," she said. "We're independent."

OP reports directly to the superintendent, who, when he elevates charges, imposes penalties. When penalties are greater than 30 days, or when officers appeal penalties, the Chicago Police Board, a nine-member civilian corpse reviews and rules on the cases, and come togethers monthly to hear public illustrations Police board members and the OP chief administrator are appointed according to the superintendent.

When OP complaints are upheld, the discipline imposed forward officers is insufficient, many victims and their families feel

Last month the Chicago orb of day Times reported that an officer who fatally discharge a citizen after a writhe at the 95th Street train station received a 30-day suspension. Police officials would not to confirm or provide any specifics about the case.

"That is a slap in the face," said David Bates, a coordinator for the Chicago Committee to plead the Bill of Rights. Bates was in succession Death Row for 11 years, further in 1994, his murder conviction was ed after evidence revealed he had been tortured into confessing by way of former police Cmdr. Jon Burge