POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
The Supreme Court has ruled that criminal defendants should receive all relevant information that may impact the credibility of a witness. A recent DOJ investigation of the Chicago Police Department found that there is currently no system to ensure that information about CPD officers - such as disciplinary actions or evidence of having provided false reports in the past - is disclosed to the State's Attorney's Office and criminal defendants as required.
Would you take affirmative steps to investigate the credibility of CPD officers when considering them as witnesses for prosecutions? If you answered yes, please describe what systems will you put in place to ensure that the State's Attorney's Office is consistently providing defendants with this constitutionally mandated information?
CONWAY: |
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| In the last several years, nearly 100 convictions have been vacated due to the involvement of a single corrupt CPD officer. For the sake of those wrongfully locked up, we must guarantee that our prosecutions are based on honest and reliable witnesses. As State's Attorney, I will empower the existing Law Enforcement Accountability Division to include ethics review of CPD officers prior to their use as witnesses. That expansion will also include a liaison dedicated to ensuring that records from CPD are properly received by pertinent parties, including CCSAO and defendants. |
FIORETTI: |
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| I would do this as allowed by law. Courts have in some cases upheld that certain information is protected by union contracts, and of course police officers are citizens also and also have constitutional rights which must be respected. |
FOXX: |
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| Again, police officers should be investigated and prosecuted in the same way that all defendants are prosecuted. |
MORE:
DID NOT RESPOND
O'BRIEN:
DID NOT RESPOND
PFANNKUCHE:
DID NOT RESPOND
