Resources

This report briefly contextualizes the issue of decriminalizing sex work, discusses how this is a part of effective anti-trafficking policy, and presents a local and state-based platform for decriminalization. Decriminalization includes amending penal codes and divesting from the criminal legal system (both police and prosecutors). Decriminalization is the first step toward expanding labor protections and funding services that address the needs of people in the sex trades.

This preliminary report summarizes what the Policing in Chicago Research Group has been able to discover, as well as what has yet to be learned, about Chicago’s gang database. Through a combination of in-depth interviews, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and archival research, the Research Group sought to learn about impacts of the gang database and understand relationships between law enforcement agencies involved in tracking gang affiliation (e.g., the Chicago Police Department, the FBI, ICE, Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, etc.).

Building on previous research into the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) gang database, this report analyzes new statistics focused on the rapid expansion of the gang database, the data on the ages of people in the database, and evidence of racial discrimination. It ultimately concludes with an attempt to estimate the overall size of CPD’s gang database and highlights the expansive inclusion of minors and elders and the disproportionately targeted communities of color in Chicago.

In response to community demands for public accountability and for a responsible process of abolition that provides restitution to people harmed by the database, the Policing in Chicago Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago carried out an evaluation of the Regional Gang Intelligence Database (RGID). This report outlines what is known about RGID and the questions that remain.

This memo provides a review of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office’s (CCSO) Regional Gang Intelligence Database (RGID), which was decommissioned on January 15, 2019. It highlights CCSO policies and procedures for the gang database as well as its data-sharing agreements.

California’s passage into law of Senate Bill 1421 allows for the public disclosure of investigations into police officers for misconduct (e.g., use of force, lying, sexual assault, etc.). Additionally, Assembly Bill 748 contains new disclosure provisions, broadly allowing audio and video recordings of “critical incidents” to be released to the public. This paper is intended to inform readers about the new laws, what they cover, how to respond to California Public Records Act requests for disclosable records, and how to deal with competing viewpoints regarding interpretation of the statutes.

For Native women, calling on law enforcement for protection from violence is often not seen as an option due to mistrust of law enforcement officials, given the US government’s continuing role as the perpetrator of genocide against Native peoples, as well as its ongoing failure to take action to protect reservation-based Native women from violence at the hands of non-Indians.

Chicago has shut down the use of predictive policing models known as the Strategic Subject List (SSL) and Crime and Victimization Risk Model (CVRM). The general areas of concern in the PTV risk model program include: the unreliability of risk scores and tiers; improperly trained sworn personnel; a lack of controls for internal and external access; interventions influenced by PTV risk models which may have attached negative consequences to arrests that did not result in convictions; and a lack of a long-term plan to sustain the PTV models.

Repeated instances of police violence against unarmed civilians have drawn worldwide attention to the contemporary crisis of police legitimacy. Community-oriented policing (COP), which encourages positive, nonenforcement contact between police officers and the public, has been widely promoted as a policy intervention for building public trust and enhancing police legitimacy. To date, however, there is little evidence that COP actually leads to changes in attitudes toward the police. Researchers conducted a randomized trial with a large urban police department and found that positive contact with police—delivered via brief door-to-door nonenforcement community policing visits—substantially improved residents’ attitudes toward police, including legitimacy and willingness to cooperate. These effects remained large in a 21-day follow-up and were largest among nonwhite respondents.