illinois

Body Cam Released Showing Cop Shoot Unarmed 13yo Child With His Hands Up, Leaving Him Paralyzed The bullet hit him in the spine and has left him "permanently and catastrophically" injured, according to the lawsuit. 22 July 2022 As TFTP reported in May, Chicago police shot another unarmed...

Illinois Department Of Corrections Benchslapped For Spending Years Failing To Improve Medical Care For Prisoners 15 August 2022 In the space of less than a week, two federal courts have come down hard on prison systems for treating prisoners like meat suitable for nothing more than processing...

City Of Chicago, Chicago PD Officers Sued Over Their Use Of Questionable ShotSpotter Technology 28 July 2020 ShotSpotter has made a name for itself (and not a good one!) by telling cops its sensors and mics can convert soundwaves into actionable intel. It has become beloved by some cops...

ShotSpotter Asks Court To Hold It In Contempt Rather Than Turn Over Information To Defense Lawyer 1 August 2022 ShotSpotter — the gunshot analytic company with the rather sketchy reputation — is, once again, endearing itself to the public by doing things that seem… well… sketchy. On Friday...

Chicago, Illinois, police officer Dillan "Quick Draw" Halley In the Aftermath of a Police Killing, the Justifications Begin Immediately After Chicago police killed Harith Augustus, the question was not: What happened? It was: How do we justify what happened? 13 August 2022 On the last day...

The FBI Kept Tabs on Mort Sahl's Jokes About It, and Hoover Thought Sahl Was a 'Sick Man' The late standup comedian's FBI file says he "ridiculed the FBI, law enforcement, and high public officials, beyond the bounds of good humor." 30 June 2022 Government records show that FBI Director J...

FBI’s Crime Data Collection Still Being Stymied By Major Police Departments Not Reporting Crime Stats 12 July 2022 The FBI has switched to a new crime reporting system to collect crime data from all over the nation. Despite being given a long runway (the 2021 switch was announced in 2015)...

Cop Charged After Attacking Innocent Woman, Knocking Her Out of Her Shoes — For Walking Her Dog 18 June 2022 In 2021, a video went viral of a Chicago police officer attacking an innocent woman with many claiming that it was an act of racial profiling. The Civilian Office of Police...

10yo Girl Calls 911 to Report Her Police Officer Dad for Sexually Abusing Her, Fellow Cops Covered It Up 12 May 2022 Frequent readers of the Free Thought Project are all too familiar with the concept of the “thin blue line.” Though law enforcement claims this line represents the force between...

FBI provides Chicago police with fake online identities for "Social Media Exploration" team Internal documents also reveal that police can take over informants’ social media accounts and pose as them online. 20 May 2022 Brian Campbell couldn’t sleep. It was May 31, 2020, and demonstrations...

11 Insanely Corrupt Speed-Trap Towns Caught stealing from motorists, these towns disbanded their police forces or even disbanded their governments altogether. 8 May, 2022 CASTLEBERRY, ALABAMA: The Birmingham News recently investigated the tiny town of Brookside, Alabama, a place "with no...

Yes, It’s Difficult To Change Cop Culture, But Let’s Not Pretend It’s Too Expensive Or Impossible To Achieve Quickly 1 April 2022 The US Department of Justice has entered into many consent decrees with many, many abusive law enforcement agencies. These decrees have the force of law, supported...

John Oliver Explains How Cops Lie To People To Rob Them Of Their Freedom 20 April 2022 God help you if you lie to a cop. We’re not even talking about court, where everyone swears to tell the whole truth, etc. before being subjected to testilying by law enforcement officers. We’re talking...

Chicago's More Aggressive Speed Cameras Issued 2.8 Million Tickets Last Year The city's army of 160 speed cameras issued a ticket every 11 seconds during 2021 and generated $89 million in revenue. 6 April 2022 After rejiggering its speed cameras to fine any car caught traveling as little as 6...

Re-Funding The Police: Taxpayers On The Hook For Billions of Dollars Of Law Enforcement Lawsuit Settlements 17 March 2022 Apparently, it’s not enough that we pay their salaries and buy their uniforms, vehicles, and weapons. We’re also expected to foot the bill when law enforcement officers...

How AI-powered tech landed man in jail with scant evidence 5 March 2022 Michael Williams’ wife pleaded with him to remember their fishing trips with the grandchildren, how he used to braid her hair, anything to jar him back to his world outside the concrete walls of Cook County Jail. His...

Police Repeatedly Question Mom of 6 Who Let Kids Pick Up Litter Outside "There are no known stories of any abductions here," says Anna Hershberger. 16 March 2022 Massachusetts mom of six Anna Hershberger has had the police called on her three times this past year. What has this recidivist...

Cop Not Charged Despite Video Showing Him Kill Unarmed 13yo Boy With His Hands Up 16 March 2022 Nearly one ago, Chicago police shot and killed a 13-year-old boy, Adam Toledo. The incident hit the city so hard that even Mayor Lori Lightfoot called for the release of the body camera footage so...

Rock Island County correctional officers & bully boys Cameron Gerischer (left) & Jacob Ward (right) Charges filed against Rock Island Co. correctional officers 18 February 2022 The Rock Island County State’s Attorney filed felony charges Friday against two correctional officers in...

A teen wrongly charged in a shooting says police offered him fast food to get a confession 23 February 2022 Advocates for juvenile justice are calling for changes to the way police and schools handle arrests after the lawyer and family of an Illinois teenager said he was coerced into giving a...