Civil Rights and Police Accountability

Produced by USA TODAY and its affiliated newspapers across the country – and media partners including the Invisible Institute in Chicago – this database gathers records from thousands of state agencies, prosecutors, and local police departments. Searchable by name, state, and/or agency.

Searchable database that contains more than 56,000 complaints filed against more than 8,500 Chicago police officers between 2001 and the present. There are gaps in that 14-year period, but the database has every allegation of misconduct made against an officer between March 2011 and September 2015.

This page contains recent news postings of news stories involving reforming police practices, an update of federal legislative actions on police practices (as well as background information on federal activity) has links to other related ACLU sites, and has a list of links to police practices websites by other organizations.

In June of 1998, Human Rights Watch published a comprehensive report on police brutality and misconduct in 14 US cities, including Chicago. Research for the report was conducted between 1995 and 1998. The report's table of contents sets out what the report includes. The report contains both a general survey and discussion of police brutality in the United States, but also includes sections on the individual cities in the study. The report covers general causes of the problem, local remedies, and litigation strategies using §241 (criminal civil rights prosecutions) initiated by the government and §1983 actions initiated by private citizens. The report also includes a number of appendices that explore how brutality has been prosecuted by the government both in terms of the number of cases brought and the sentences handed down for convictions.

The NLG's National Police Accountability Project is a coordinated effort to provide resources and training to local projects nationwide. Some of this website is restricted to members of the NLG (some fee-based services are accessible through the site) but the site includes a free list of research papers on issues in the litigation of police misconduct (downloadable in Word Perfect 8 format), a list of recent court of appeals decisions affecting police accountability, and articles on police practices.

The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) is a national membership organization of progressive police executives that seeks to improve policing through research and involvement in public policy debate. PERF's primary sources of operating revenues are government grants and contracts, as well as private organizations. This site provides comprehensive information about PERF's research projects. These projects include the development of guidelines for the analysis and interpretation of vehicle/pedestrian stop data collected by agencies in the context of the national discussion on racial profiling. PERF has also developed a number of Publications on Community Policing and the Future of Police. These publications are intended to pose challenges regarding the role, function and methods of agencies in the context of community policing. PERF is also involved with Strengthening Relations Between Police and Minority Communities. The aim of this project is to develop methods for balancing crime control strategies with proactive interactions with citizens.

The Vera Institute researches, raises money, and works with governmental entities to institute various reforms. The Vera Institute was founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City. Today, it has offices in Brooklyn, NY; Los Angeles, CA; New Orleans, LA; and Washington, DC. These offices are home to Vera’s place-based initiatives.