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Chicago police misconduct cases at center of high-stakes court battle
The Illinois Supreme Court is taking up a major case involving Chicago police discipline.
CHICAGO - A long-running legal fight over police accountability in Chicago is heading to the Illinois Supreme Court, where justices will consider whether serious disciplinary cases can be handled behind closed doors.
Chicago police hearings before Supreme Court
Oral arguments are scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in Springfield and will also be streamed online.
The dispute involves 27 Chicago police officers with pending disciplinary charges who chose arbitration instead of public hearings before the Chicago Police Board. Arbitration would allow their cases to be handled privately.
Seven of those officers are accused of using deadly force. The group includes Officer Eric Stillman, who shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo in 2021.
A law expert who spoke about the case said the decision could determine whether the public can monitor how serious police misconduct allegations are handled.
"The stakes in this case could not be greater," said Craig Futterman, a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago. "This is fundamentally about will there be police accountability in Chicago. Will the public have the right to monitor the police? The question before the Supreme Court is will the most serious cases of police misconduct be decided in secrecy by a group of arbitrators who have a track record of protecting officers from accountability? Will the Supreme Court allow, in this case, the Fraternal Order of Police to push the most serious cases of police misconduct behind closed doors?"
The backstory:
The legal battle began several years ago after an arbitrator ruled that state law allowed union members to take disciplinary cases to private arbitration.
The Chicago City Council rejected that approach, sending the dispute to court.
Lower court judges ruled that secret hearings conflicted with the public’s right to know how police misconduct cases are handled, though they allowed accused officers to keep getting paid.
The police union was not happy with part of the ruling and appealed to the state’s highest court.
What they're saying:
The city and the Illinois attorney general’s office have argued that closing the hearings to the public could weaken police reforms and deepen mistrust in the community.
The union argues that state law permits officers to use private arbitration.
What's next:
Even after the Illinois Supreme Court rules, the city and the union will still have to determine how the new process will work.
That means a final resolution for the pending disciplinary cases could still be far away.
The Source: The information in this story came from arguments from the city, Illinois attorney general’s office and police union, and an interview with law expert Craig Futterman.