When Police Act As Criminals

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on the record of some Chicago police officers:

Let's begin with the grand totals. During 2002 to 2004, citizens filed 10,150 complaints alleging police abuses in the categories of excessive force, illegal arrest, illegal searches, racial and sexual abuse. Investigations of those complaints by OPS and IAD yielded just 18 cases in which the accused officer received meaningful discipline. In other words, an officer accused of abusing a citizen had a 99.8 percent chance of not receiving any meaningful discipline.

When you break out particular categories of police misconduct, this stunning ratio of complaints to discipline holds. Thus:

•661 complaints of illegal arrest -- e.g., complaints that officers planted drugs on those they arrested -- led to not a single instance of meaningful discipline.

•3,837 complaints of illegal, warrantless searches led to one instance of meaningful discipline.

•5,358 complaints of excessive force led to 15 instances of meaningful discipline. An officer accused of brutality thus had a 0.3 percent chance of receiving meaningful discipline.

It is hard to believe officers with criminal tendencies would be deterred from wrongdoing by such odds. On the contrary, these numbers evoke conditions of impunity under which abusive officers can operate without fear of punishment.

The problems of monopoly of force.