Computerized gang data should be scrapped by CPD, groups say, not overhauled

Community groups that oppose the Chicago Police Department’s controversial gathering of information to label people as known gang members launched an online campaign Wednesday, an apparent early strike against an expected announcement that CPD’s data collection will be overhauled.

The groups released a long list of public comments made at hearings on the issue to show what they said is an overwhelmingly negative view of the current gang classification system in city neighborhoods. Most respondents who commented do not want such a database to exist at all, even in an amended form, the groups said.

“Reading through the comments I realized an overwhelming number of suggestions urged the city to consider investing resources in communities instead of creating a new gang database," said Veronica Rodriguez, youth organizer with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.

"I believe people know the issue here is about CPD’s inappropriate use of these databases, and the fact that it can’t be easily solved only by tweaking the system. People want to see more investment in public education and mental health resources in our neighborhoods instead of more surveillance and criminalization.”

City and department officials have been briefing aldermen, community members and the media about the creation, for the first time, of a single Criminal Enterprise Database. The new system still would include known gang members in the city, but with significant changes to how it is put together.

The department has for years gathered gang data from multiple places -- arrest reports, gang cards and contact cards, for example -- and warehoused them in its massive computer information network. The end result was an out-of-date, inaccurate and racially biased list of known gang members that swelled to more than 130,000 names, according to lawsuits and a scathing report by the city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office.

Critics have said the designation of someone as a gang member is too subjective, based on who some city residents associated with or what they might have been wearing when they came into contact with police officers.

And because the information was readily available departmentwide -- and to outside law enforcement agencies -- there have been devastating consequences for people on the list. Some critics have said people have been ordered for deportation based on falsely being labeled as gang members, for example. Some classified by the city as gang members have reported struggling to find work after the affiliations popped up on background checks, community groups have said.

In response to a lawsuit, the IG’s report and criticism from neighborhood groups, the city announced that it would reform how gang data is used for police work, creating, for the first time, an actual list that would be vetted for accuracy and audited routinely. The result is expected to be the new Criminal Enterprise Database. Meanwhile, ordinances have been introduced at City Council aimed at curtailing or stopping use of any database.

The information released by community groups Wednesday included more than 400 individual statements made by community members at meetings held by the city challenging the existence of any such database.

“Please abolish the gang database. It’s ridiculous. Police have an important job to do, (but) targeting schoolchildren, women and other innocent people just is not it,” one comment read. “I understand that it is hard being an officer and you want to maximize your protection of the communities. This document claims to lay out a lot of protections for people and yet there are countless stories of people mistakenly put on it and not aware. You should care.”

Many of the comments said the old database unfairly targeted people of color and was filled with errors and names which were unfairly included.

“We were told that the Chicago Police Department would consider the comments made by the public last spring regarding the proposed Criminal Enterprise Database," said Chaz Lee, an organizer at HANA Center, a Chicago-area organization that focuses on social service and advocacy, including around immigration. “We now know that an overwhelming majority of those that submitted feedback oppose the implementation of the new gang database. We ask City Council to move forward with our proposed ordinance and stop the implementation.”

Law enforcement officials have long said that gang affiliation -- which is now much more focused on looser designations by blocks -- matters when they are trying to investigate Chicago’s runaway gun violence. Much of the violence is retaliatory, leading to multiple shootings between gang factions.

The flare-ups are also tracked in districts as supervisors decide which corners or blocks to target for extra police efforts, for example.

Experts do not dispute the need for local district officers to understand what is driving violence, but warehousing gang information for general use and by outside law enforcement is unnecessary and will not help reduce crime, some have said.

“There is a much bigger issue, which is the IG said they should evaluate whether this is a legitimate tool,” said Sheila Bedi, a professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. “Or whether these gang databases are essentially useless, and the city has failed to engage in that inquiry. This really suggests a missed opportunity to bring policing in Chicago into the future and address some of the unconstitutional and racist policing practices that have haunted our communities.”

asweeney@chicagotribune.com

___

(c)2020 the Chicago Tribune

Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.