Police
Many on house arrest bombarded with texts from sheriff’s contractor
Hundreds of Chicagoans have been inundated with faulty alerts that summon sheriff’s deputies and carry the threat of jail.
The cop who would be mayor
CPD officer Frederick Collins has more than 40 misconduct complaints. Now, he’s running for mayor.
CPD requested thousands of vaccine exemptions
Nearly half of Chicago police employees applied for exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine.
New body-cam images show CPD attack on Miracle Boyd
Officer Nicholas Jovanovich now faces firing as a result of the 2020 incident, in which he knocked out the activist’s tooth and seized her cell phone.
Chicago police pistol-whipped suspect in brutal 2017 arrest
Last year, COPA recommended three of the officers involved be fired. They still haven’t been.
CPD’s chief LGBTQ+ liaison officer left the post amid internal turmoil
Sources familiar with the department say the liaison office has become an understaffed PR ploy.
Courts & Prisons
Cook County Judge Raúl Vega is retiring under a cloud of allegations
The former top judge of Cook County’s domestic violence court will retire with a lifetime pension, despite accusations from women in his courtroom that he mistreated them.
Stateville prison water testing did not follow federal regulations
Amid an ongoing water crisis at one of Illinois’s largest prisons, an outside contractor was hired to test the water for lead but didn’t follow EPA regulations.
Most Illinois prison staff haven’t gotten COVID boosters
Fewer than one in ten prison staffers have received a booster, even as cases spike in correctional facilities across the state.
After 34 years, a murder conviction quietly reversed in four minutes
James Allen still has two murder cases keeping him in prison.
Reasonable doubt
James Allen is serving three life sentences for murder. No one ever said he killed anyone.
Dozens of reports from inside Cook County Jail paint a grim picture as COVID-19 cases soar
Prisoners say the jail, which has seen more than 800 confirmed cases, is a “death trap.”
THE SALE OF Douglass Park
Donations, violations, and fees
Contracts obtained by the Reader reveal where Riot Fest spends its money.
Riot acts
A timeline of community organizing to oust music fests from Douglass Park
Riot Fest meeting leaves residents worried about the fate of their park
A recent community meeting provided few answers.
HOUSING
That lockout you witnessed? It didn’t happen.
Ex-cops attempted to throw out a Rogers Park tenant at gunpoint. The police report tells a different story.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
‘House of Screams’ revisited
The reporting is an icon of the paper’s journalism, but John Conroy wonders what it actually accomplished.
Chicago police are spying on citizens
Authorities have conducted surveillance on activists in recent years but won’t say why.
FAIL: The Reader’s Parking Meter Investigation
Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke’s report on the privatization of Chicago’s parking meters, how the deal went down, and its fallout
A Fire in the Family
Laverne Williams, 19, died in a fire in her west-side apartment on January 27. She saved her son Derrick, 3, and her daughter Delina, 1, before succumbing. She is survived by her mother Glo, her twin sister Lavette, and a large extended family.
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