Shapearl Wells speaks to WTTW News near the site of her son’s murder in 2016. (WTTW News)

“It’s so important that we actually get this information out, not just for me, but for any of these other cases that they are holding back, giving us all the details," Shapearl Wells said. “It is so crucial for the public to find out what’s actually happening in Chicago.”

Shapearl Wells speaks to WTTW News near the site of her son’s murder in 2016. (WTTW News)

“It is an absurd denial that lacks human generosity,” journalist Jamie Kalven said.

Shapearl Wells speaks to WTTW News near the site of her son’s murder in 2016. (WTTW News)

“Seven years, and we still don’t have the answers. We still don’t know what happened to my son. Seven years, I’m still fighting, trying to find the truth.”

(WTTW News)
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Independent journalist Jamie Kalven called the revised plan for the database “nothing more an exercise in smoke and mirrors.” The city's watchdog hammered the plan as “significantly smaller step, in scope and scale” than the one presented to aldermen in April.

(WTTW News)
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Aldermen and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have agreed to create a database of police misconduct files dating back to 2000, an effort championed by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson as a way to start restoring Chicagoans’ trust in officers, Ald. Scott Waguespack has told WTTW News.

A memorial for Anthony Alvarez, the 22-year-old fatally shot by a Chicago police officer in Portage Park on March 31, 2021, is seen on April 28, the day police body camera video was released of the shooting. (WTTW News)

There are still many unknowns about the fatal police shooting of Anthony Alvarez on March 31, including why he was stopped by law enforcement in the first place.

(WTTW News)

As Chicago reeled — again — from the police killing of a teenager recorded on video, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson offered aldermen a way to reverse what he called the city’s “long history” of covering up police misconduct. “We are out of runway with respect to the public’s patience and beliefs that we care to reform,” he said.

Developed by the University of Chicago Crime and Education Lab, the system is designed to provide officers with the support they need before they harm themselves or others. A pilot program began Tuesday and will expand citywide over the next year.

Former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke and his attorney Daniel Herbert, left, attend Van Dyke’s sentencing hearing on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune / Pool)

In the wake of two historic cases, a discussion with two central figures in the story of the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald: journalist Jamie Kalven and former police union president Dean Angelo.

The high-profile case and its impact on Chicago: A conversation with journalists Jamie Kalven, Kimberly Egonmwan, Greg Hinz and John Fountain.

A still image taken from video footage released Thursday, Aug. 16 by the Chicago Police Department shows the immediate aftermath of the police-involved shooting of Harith Augustus, 37, on Saturday, July 14, 2018.
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A conversation with journalist Jamie Kalven about police accountability as more videos of last month’s fatal police-involved shooting of Harith Augustus come online.

Jamie Kalven appears in court Dec. 6. (Courtesy of WGN)

Jamie Kalven, the Chicago journalist who broke the story of Laquan McDonald’s shooting death, will not be compelled to turn over his sources or testify in open court, a judge has ruled. “To have it resolved, and definitive resolved, was a big relief,” Kalven said.

“I’m a writer, a journalist,” said Jamie Kalven in court Wednesday. (Courtesy of WGN)

Should Jamie Kalven, the reporter who broke the story of the Laquan McDonald shooting, be forced, under oath, to reveal his sources? 

(Invisible Institute)
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The Invisible Institute, a locally-based nonprofit production company, this week published a new report after spending five years talking with black Chicago high school students about their interactions with police.

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Aldermen in Chicago's Black Caucus want to hold police Superintendent Garry McCarthy accountable in the Laquan McDonald case and activists are calling for the ouster of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

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The Citizens Police Data Project went online Tuesday. The searchable database chronicles 56,361 police disciplinary records. Among them, more than 28,000 allegations of misconduct filed against the Chicago Police Department between March 2011 and September 2015, and records on officers repeatedly accused of wrongdoing between 2000 and 2008.