Chicago police unions push for destruction of old complaints

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chicago police unions push for destruction of old complaints
Jason Keyser, Associated Press

Updated 10:16 pm, Friday, January 15, 2016

CHICAGO (AP) — Unions representing Chicago police officers are fighting for the destruction of tens of thousands of documents from disciplinary files dating back several decades, just as activists and community leaders are demanding more access and transparency from a department under intense scrutiny after several controversial police shootings.

The two unions' contracts with the city stipulate that the records, including complaints alleging misconduct, be destroyed after five years in most cases if no litigation is ongoing. The city says it has had to keep the files because of federal court orders issued in litigation going back to the 1990s. But the unions say they only recently discovered they still existed when the city informed them it would release all documents as part of a massive public records request by several newspapers.

A judge who has kept the records in limbo for more than a year said at a hearing Friday that he would keep a union-requested injunction in place pending the outcome of more negotiations between the city and the unions. Arbitrators have sided with the unions but in a decision this week gave the sides until March 15 to work out a system for determining which of the documents are subject to destruction.

Cook County Circuit Judge Peter Flynn said Friday that he will eventually have to consider whether the state's Freedom of Information Act requires the city to release material it shouldn't have had in the first place.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Chicago-police-unions-push-for-destruction-of-old-6762027.php

[geek tragedy]

1. Screw the cop unions. Their main function

is to enable lawlessness and abuse.

[virgogal]

2. Not so.Most of the people they face daily are hardly the cream of the crop.

[branford]

3. The City is screwed.

If they release the records, they are in breach of the union contract and will be liable for substantial damages, particularly if they didn't notify the union of the retention.

If they don't release the records, they will be accused of covering-up improprieties.

The best outcome for the city is probably for the union to prevail in court with an order to destroy the files.

[Festivito]

4. Bit of a quagmire. Contracted 5yr limit *in most cases* *if no litigation*

To me the public have more rights than do their representatives and therein more rights than their representatives' contracts thus usurping any such contractual terms. However, some rights may have be relinquished by election leaving private worker information as private. However, the election may not have offered such a choice, thereby not relinquishing such rights. And, on and on.

Trying make sense of a bunch of poorly contrived policies. We the people are slow learners.