Blog Posts in December, 2015

The State is Suing Inmates for the Costs of Housing Them in Jail

There has been a recent upswing in lawsuits against inmates in the Illinois Corrections system. Little known, and until recently little used, there is a law still in effect in Illinois which allows the State to sue individuals for reimbursement for their incarceration. Essentially, the suits are seeking rental payments for their time in jail. Fair or not, this is currently the law, although it was ...

Police Misconduct Database Opened to the Public

After years of litigation challenging Chicago Police Department officers and the CPD itself, the Invisible Institute of Chicago launched its website which allows citizens to look up CPD officer misconduct. The site logged 56,000 complaints of misconduct on approximately 8,500 CPD officers. You can search the site, located at http://cpdb.co/data/bZ2o9b/citizens-police-data-project . It is only ...

Electronic Policing Now a Reality in Some States

It recently came to light that more than 30 police agencies in the country, 9 of which are in California, are already using futuristic technology to help police their cities. Specifically, they are using mobile biometric devices that scan fingerprints, faces and even tattoos. It was recently reported that "the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a joint project with MuckRock, filed public records ...