Chicago Justice Podcast

Chicago Justice Podcast


Tribune Article on New Foot Pursuit Policy

May 06, 2021

The Chicago Tribune published an article with a headline that makes you think they have a scoop on the new foot pursuit policy from the Chicago Police Department (CPD). What the Tribune delivers can best be labeled as notes from a possible brainstorming session about what might be included in a new policy someday. The Tribune cannot confirm anything in the document they obtained is in the current draft of the policy.

fsddsfCJP has covered both the Adam Toledo and the Anthony Alvarez shootings on our show. These two shootings are the impetus behind the CPD accelerating the revamp of their foot pursuit policy.

A close read of the document reveals that the contents seem merely aspirational and not even remotely in a form that one would consider the document close to the finished product. The article also reveals that the Tribune journalists, Annie Sweeney and Jeremy Gorner, don't have any idea what is in the current draft. In the story they quote CPD Superintendent David Brown saying he has one in hand. It would seem to me that the document the Tribune journalists received would only be useful as a tool to show what was on the table early and how close or far from that aspirational document the final version is. Publishing a story on this document alone seems premature to me at best and at worst click bait as the Tribune journalists cannot say with any confidence that what is in this document is in the current version Brown says he has,.

One aspect of this story that I did think was interesting is how close this aspirational document is to the foot pursuit policy put in to place by Brown during his tenure in Dallas. If anything this is the scoop in the story. The fact that this aspirational document mirrors what was put in to place in Dallas. Now, if the Tribune journalists did their job and put some context about how the document was created and who was involved we would have a better idea who close or far this is from the most recent version.

We discuss this article in-depth and cover the following other topics in this episode of the Chicago Justice Show.

Topics:

ShotSpotter Analysis from MacArthur Justice Center - Link, Social Media Fails (new regular segments) Link, LinkMayor Coming up Short on ReformCPD Offices Not Getting VaccinatedChicago Reader's Carjacking AnalysisFox 32's Fire Arm Trafficking Story



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