According to a recently released study, Cook County criminal courts may be tainted by systemic inequality within the Chicago Police Department. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel commissioned a task force to examine allegations of widespread unfair treatment inside the CPD, and the committee issued over 100 recommendations for change. These recommendations were based on some rather troubling statistics. Although Chicago’s population is roughly one-third white, one-third black, and one-third Hispanic, the subject was black in 46% of traffic stops and 72%...

Most of the 64 people arrested in a major operation were already on the Chicago Police Department’s drug crime “watch list.” Authorities execute 35 different search warrants at several dozen South Side businesses and homes; the arrests included 50 felony drug charges, three felony charges of unlawful weapons possession, and a number of unspecified misdemeanor charges. Interim police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said that the “targeted mission” would continue as “part of an ongoing initiative to help further reduce the ability...

In addition to its social stigma, a criminal conviction often makes it difficult or impossible to work in certain occupations or live in certain places. If rehabilitation really is a goal of the penal system, then some form of expungement must be available, at least in most cases. There are informal expungement procedures in most jurisdictions, in the form of pretrial diversion programs and deferred adjudication probation. But, by and large, there programs either have strict requirements or, from a...

A Rosemont man faces up to seven years in prison after being charged with his fourth DUI, following a traffic stop in Cook County. Officers claim they observed 56-year-old Paul Rojas driving well below the speed limit and swerving inside his lane. After pulling him over, officers claim that Mr. Rojas smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes. After failing field sobriety tests, he was arrested and subsequently refused to submit to a breath test, according to the report. A...

An area woman who, in a moment of confusion, apparently mistook the West Riverside train tracks for Traube Street was arrested for DUI. A Riverside Police Department officer had just watched a freight train pass through a crossing when he saw a 2004 Saturn driving on the tracks. After contacting dispatch and requesting that railroad traffic on the line be stopped, the officer exited his car and pursued the Saturn some 200 feet on foot. The driver, later identified as...

A recent law in the Beehive State requires persons who are convicted of certain financial crimes to register with a state agency. Could such a system be coming to the Land of Lincoln soon? The White Collar Crime Offender Registry, which has been accessible online since February 2016, contains about 100 offenders. Each entry contains the name, date of birth, and photograph of the offender, as well as a brief synopsis of the offense. For now, the list is limited...

Modern Illinois is a mobile society. On average, most people relocate twelve times, or roughly once every four years, during their adult lifetimes. Since many of these moves are job-based, both custody and support modification is probably in order. In these instances, many people rely on “side agreements” rather than modification orders. Sometimes these agreements are oral, and in the immortal words of Samuel Goldwyn, “an oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” Other agreements are text message...

Having a clear vision in place early on in the divorce process is important, since many big decisions are made in the opening weeks of the case, and it can be difficult to reverse these trends later. Divorce cases are similar to the early days of the founding of our great nation because just as the future of the country was at stake in 1787, the future of your family is at stake in any divorce case. In 1787, James...

Four people were shot in an exchange of gunfire between three Chicago police officers and an alleged gang member with a long history of drug-related arrests. 29-year-old Lamar Harris was under investigation for “possible narcotics activity” when he apparently ran from police in the Holman Square area of the West Side of Chicago. Officers pursued on foot and soon cornered Mr. Harris in an unlit apartment complex courtyard. The shooting began as officers converged on the suspect. Three officers were...

Due to a combination of factors, tuition at Illinois public universities has doubled over the past ten years. First, the well-documented pension fund crisis touched institutions of higher learning. In 2005, retirement funds accounted for 20% of the higher education budget; by last year, that proportion had escalated to 53%. As a result, schools have had to drastically increase tuition just to keep up with operating costs, fund modest improvements, and generally keep pace with other colleges. At the same...

Amidst ongoing instability that has seen eight different directors in the last five years, the state’s troubled child welfare agency filed an improvement plan that says will “help transform” the system. The filing complies with several legal actions, including a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union which claimed that the Department of Children and Family Services offered “dangerously inadequate” care for the children in its system. Indeed, the DFCS is somewhat notorious for deficiencies like long waiting lists for...

The proposed Department of Children and Family Service’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year places less emphasis on institutional care and more emphasis on re-integrating children into the community. Funding for institutional care facilities will be slashed by $23 million, but the new budget includes an additional $19 million for community placement efforts, a process that DCFS Director George Sheldon has already put in motion. Moreover, during a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Mr. Sheldon testified that services for 18-21...

Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, driving under the influence was little more than a somewhat serious traffic ticket. Many officers would not even arrest intoxicated drivers, if they were close to their destinations or promised to drive straight home. But then a number of advocacy groups successfully changed both the laws and the way they were enforced. While some of the political and social furor over DUI has faded, these laws and procedures remain in place. Just recently,...

This time of year, we often take a few moments to remember some of the traditions in The Old Country, which sometimes involved lax enforcement of certain criminal laws. Like many Irish folk songs, Johnny McEldoo has no clear origin. It tells the story of some friends who went out drinking one night. Afterwards, since they were hungry, they “visited McMann’s, MacIllman’s, [and] Humpty Dan’s; we then went into Swann’s our stomachs for to pack.” One fellow in particular, the...

Illinois law declares that marital property must be divided “equitably” in a divorce, which is not necessarily the same thing as an “equal” division. How does such a distribution work, in practical terms? Nearly all civil cases – upwards of 95%, in most jurisdictions – are settled out of court. In divorce actions, it is not unheard of for the parties’ only contact with the judge to occur on the day the divorce decree is signed. Settlement negotiations generally take...