Our report on the agenda of the Chicago City Council Committee on Public Safety reveals damning truths about just how useless this committee has been on the topics of policing and police accountability over the last 20 years. This incredibly comprehensive report looked at 489 agenda items of 186 meetings over 20 years from 2000 through July 2020.

Our report leaves the members of this committee no room to wiggle out responsibility for their lack of interest in regulating the one department in the City of Chicago that is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year in settlements and judgments for misconduct each year. Instead the alderpeople have decided to spend as much time in their committee work focusing on donating use police and fire equipment abroad then they have on regulating policing and the police accountability system.

It is a mind blowing abdication of the responsibilities as legislators and members of an oversight committee. It is clear that our report proves that over the last 20 years alderpeople have no desire to take any responsibility for what the police department does on their streets in their communities and uses the police accountability system as a shield to insulate themselves from the repercussions of their lack of action.

In today's main segment we feature an interview with the author of the report intern Lauren Cole. Lauren is a recent public policy graduate from the University of Chicago and is interning with CJP this summer.

Also on our show today:

CJP's response to Alderman Christopher Taliaferro;s comments about our report in the Sun-TimesFOP Watch15th ward Alderperson Lopez's