Chicago Police Department Use of Force Data Analysis Project: Results

By Michael R. Smith, Rob Tillyer, & John MacDonald

In January 2019, the City of Chicago entered into a policing Consent Decree in State ofIllinois v. City of Chicago, N.D. III. 17-cv-06260. The Consent Decree sets forth numerous requirements for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to reform training, policies, and practices to ensure constitutional, effective, and transparent policing. The Consent Decree also requires data collection, analysis, and reporting to provide for ongoing, sustainable self-assessment and datadriven, evidence-based decision making by CPD leadership. In partial fulfillment of the requirements ofthe consent decree, researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania (Research Team) was engaged by the CPD and tasked with developing a best practice methodology for analyzing CPD Tactical Response Report (TRR) and related data for patterns and trends in force used against specific demographic groups in Chicago. The Proposed Methodology Report went through several drafts and was accepted by CPD and the Independent Monitoring Team (IMT) in its final form on August 15, 2024. The current report serves as the main analytic work product outlined in the Proposed Methodology Report and details the results from the Research Team's analysis of CPD use of force and related data spanning a four year period - January 2020 through December 2023. The analyses contained herein are designed to identify potential patterns of disparity in how force was used by CPD against identifiable racial, ethnic, and gender-based subpopulations in Chicago from 2020 - 2023. The report uses scientifically appropriate benchmarks and statistical modeling to investigate the nature and extent of those disparities, if any, and to examine relevant subject, officer, situational, and area-level factors that are associated with or predictive of observed disparities. This report is offered to CPD and the IMT to assist the parties in their ongoing efforts to monitor compliance with the terms of the Consent Decree.

San Antonio: The University of Texas at San Antonio UTSA Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2026. 84p.