Chicago is failing to keep proper track of most police discipline except firings, watchdog finds

The city’s watchdog agency says poor recordkeeping is hindering the Chicago Police Department from properly tracking officers’ disciplinary histories.

The reason is that the records are siloed in three different places: the police department, the city’s Department of Human Resources and the Office of Public Safety Administration, according to a report released Tuesday by city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.

The resulting “gaps” in recordkeeping hinder the police department’s ability to decide what kind of discipline to impose against cops when they’re hit with new allegations.

The report said there ought to be information regarding suspensions in officers’ personnel files, along with an “associated deduction of pay” in the relevant citywide databases. But the audit found that the necessary information in both databases was not reliably recorded.

“There can be no meaningful, credible accountability — and we cannot hope to foster public trust — if we cannot, at the most basic level, actually ensure that discipline is implemented where we have found misconduct,” Witzburg said in a statement.

An audit found the city was “inconsistent” in recording the final disciplinary decisions, such as reprimands and suspensions, although firings were properly recorded. The police department couldn’t show documentation for more than half the reprimands and more than a third of suspensions.

Witzburg, who’s leaving office in April, has also warned about a rising number of unresolved disciplinary complaints against cops because of a court battle between the city and the Fraternal Order of Police.

A court decision allowed cops to have serious disciplinary complaints heard for the first time by an arbitrator instead of the Chicago Police Board. Now the FOP is fighting to keep those arbitration hearings closed to the public.

As the court case drags on, complaints are piling up because most cops are opting to take their cases to arbitration, but those hearings can’t begin until a decision is reached on whether they’ll be open or closed.