Chicago Street cops say 'ACLU effect' drives spike in gun violence

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Authorities last year suggested Chicago’s spike in gun violence in 2015 was due to the “Ferguson effect” — cops afraid to do their jobs because of the scrutiny following the shooting of a black teenager by a white officer in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

But with Chicago now plagued with an even steeper rise in fatal shootings in January, compared with the same period of 2015, street cops are offering a new reason: the “ACLU effect.”

Starting in January, officers have been required to fill out two-page forms documenting every stop of a citizen for everything from traffic violations to investigative stops. They ask for much more information than the previous one-page “contact cards” officers filled out.

In interviews with officers and sergeants over the past month, a common theme has emerged: Cops say they have avoided making many of the stops they would have routinely done last year. They fear getting in trouble for stops later deemed to be illegal and say the new cards take too much time to complete.


Their reluctance to make stops was borne out by a police statistic released Sunday: Officers completed 79 percent fewer contact cards in January 2016 than over the same period last year.

Paperwork does cut down on the supply of things!