Bar Raid Legal? Chicago

[~lostgurl~]

A new entry has been added to Drugs Archive

Description:

2 mins
9 October 2007
Chicago Tribune

The SOS was caught on camera illegally raiding a bar and searching all the patrons without a warrant. Now Chicago police are disbanding the corrupt Special Operations Section

Video footage from Caballo's Bar, Chicago on 27 March 2004

To check it out, rate it or add comments, visit Bar Raid Legal? Chicago
The comments you make there will appear in the posts below.


**********

Article:

Cops disband elite unit
Scandal-plagued division broken up under pressure of criminal probes

By David Heinzmann and Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
ChicagoTribune
October 9, 2007

After weeks of worsening revelations about the Chicago Police Department's elite Special Operations Section, a beleaguered interim superintendent finally pulled the plug Tuesday, disbanding the scandal-plagued unit and sending most of its officers back to more strictly supervised assignments.

The recent incidents of police misconduct, which include charges that SOS officers robbed and kidnapped people, and that one accused officer plotted to murder another, have been "disheartening and demoralizing, especially for officers who serve honorably every day," interim Supt. Dana Starks said Tuesday at a news conference called to announce the abrupt disbanding of SOS.

Some of the more than 100 SOS officers to be reassigned will join the Targeted Response Unit, which does similar work hunting guns and drugs in gang-infested areas. But most will be reassigned to the city's 25 patrol districts, where they will be more tightly tied to police radio assignments, "answering calls for service," Starks said.

The reorganization of SOS has been in the works for the last two months, beginning with the assignment of the new commander in August, Starks said. He added that the move was his call, and that he notified Mayor Richard Daley on Tuesday after he made the decision.

"I am confident that this is a positive step forward," he said.

Daley, who had staunchly defended keeping SOS after the most recent revelations in the scandal, had no comment.

Once touted as one of the department's most nimble and aggressive weapons for fighting street gangs, SOS has produced one black eye after another for the city and Daley's administration over the last year, and especially in the last several weeks.

The units at the heart of the scandal were involved in street policing, rooting out gang and drug crimes in the roughest parts of Chicago.

But SOS also included other specialized teams, including the SWAT team, marine, K-9, animal abuse and critical response units. Mounted patrol, a helicopter unit and officers trained to protect visiting dignitaries also were part of SOS. Those units are being reorganized into the newly named Special Functions Group, Starks said.

Although he declined to give numbers, Starks also said he was moving some officers into the Internal Affairs Division to beef the department's ability to investigate its own officers.

Starks said he believes the changes would "strengthen community relationships, enhance our violence-reduction strategies and make us better police officers."

Tuesday's move was anticipated by many in the department. The rumor mill predicted the once-popular unit's demise for weeks. One high-ranking commander said that recently SOS officers testifying in court were "getting eaten alive" by defense attorneys merely by association with the unit.

Officials also were trying to control the damage done to the department's reputation.

"We're saying that we're taking allegations of misconduct seriously. We are showing how we're making wholesale changes by restructuring how officers are being deployed," said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the Police Department. Bond said the department monitors all complaints against officers, even bogus ones. Complaints can range from a parking violation to excessive force, she said.

While the number of officers under investigation has grown over the last week, Bond said there are many good officers in the unit.

"Not everyone in SOS is a bad officer. You can't paint this with a broad stroke," she said.

In August the Tribune revealed that the U.S. attorney's office had joined the ongoing state probe that already had led to charges of robbery and kidnapping against seven officers in the unit.

Just weeks later, the FBI raided the home of Officer Jerome Finnigan, the alleged leader of the accused cops who was free on bail, and charged him with plotting to murder a former SOS officer who had begun aiding investigators.

Two days after the charges were announced, the Tribune published a video of SOS officers—including Finnigan— raiding a Southwest Side bar in 2004 and searching its patrons. The video contradicted the arrest reports and raised constitutional issues about the legality of the raid, in which arrest reports allegedly were falsified and victims said police robbed their homes while they were in custody.

At the end of last week, the department stripped three more officers of their police powers over the incident, and others were under investigation.

In joining the probe, federal investigators have focused not on the original alleged crimes, but on what commanders in SOS, and higher up in the department, may have known about the rogue activities. The Office of Professional Standards and the Internal Affairs Division had fielded numerous complaints about Finnigan and the other officers over the years but they were still on the street before prosecutors concluded their own investigation and brought charges.

It is not the first time in recent history that a corruption scandal has led to the disbanding of a special unit. In 2000 the Gang Crimes Section was disbanded after federal authorities charged Officer Joseph Miedzianowski with using gang members to run his own drug distribution ring. The FBI called Miedzianowski, now serving life in prison, the "most corrupt cop in Chicago history."

When Gang Crimes was disbanded many of the officers in the unit, including Finnigan, were assigned to SOS.

The SOS scandal has brought a growing chorus of questions about the quality of police oversight in the city. The scandal was part of the impetus behind Daley reorganizing the Office of Professional Standards during the summer. And aldermen are fighting the city over documents showing which officers have the most excessive force complaints, a list that is top-heavy with SOS officers.

"The department is going to continue to look at other cases for patterns of inappropriate behavior and misconduct," Starks said. "We will remove any officer who commits a crime and violates the public trust."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-police_weboct10,0,5888013.story?coll=chi_tab01_lay out

[fnord]

i think the links broken.

[Shampoo]

Originally Posted by ~lostgurl~

It is not the first time in recent history that a corruption scandal has led to the disbanding of a special unit. In 2000 the Gang Crimes Section was disbanded after federal authorities charged Officer Joseph Miedzianowski with using gang members to run his own drug distribution ring. The FBI called Miedzianowski, now serving life in prison, the "most corrupt cop in Chicago history."

When Gang Crimes was disbanded many of the officers in the unit, including Finnigan, were assigned to SOS.

...expecting intelligent self-reform?