ENGLEWOOD POLICE STATION
If you are arrested for a felony in Englewood today, a Chicago police officer will file charges and take you to jail without the review of a prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.
That’s not how arrests in Englewood were made in the past. But that’s the way it’s being carried out today in the 7th Police District. And, if all goes well for the county’s top prosecutor’s plans for reducing violent crime in the predominately Black neighborhood, the practice of Chicago police filing charges without a prosecutor’s review will be implemented in all of the city’s 22 police districts.
It’s called the Bypass Felony Review Pilot Program, an experimental procedure that gives Chicago police officers in Englewood more power to arrest suspects they believe committed a felony. The program began in January under newly elected Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neil Burke, who promised to be tougher on crime than her predecessor, Kim Fox.
Burke’s initiative begins in Englewood on the South Side, where individuals have been victimized by police officers whose departments have a notorious history of fabricating evidence, falsifying reports, and doing anything and everything to put innocent people behind bars.
This week, the nonprofit news outlet Bolts published a disturbing story about police having more authority when making arrests in Englewood under the Bypass Felony Review Pilot Program. The program was jointly developed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago Police Department, according to Bolts, which learned of the program through a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request.
While Burke and CPD focus on fighting crime, there is concern that the program could increase cases of police misconduct and wrongful conviction cases. For years, Cook County has been known as the “false confession capital of America,” but under Burke’s program, there’s concern that Cook County would become the “false confession capital of the world.”
According to Bolts, “Felony review is a first line of defense against unconstitutional stops and searches, flimsy evidence, and other deficiencies that could cause a case to be later thrown out. After police make a felony arrest, they notify the Cook County prosecutor’s felony review division, where an on-call prosecutor examines each case to determine whether the charges are appropriate and whether they have sufficient evidence. They might review body camera footage or police reports, interview the arresting officers, or even act like another detective on the case, helping police collect evidence and interrogate suspects. Less serious crimes like gun possession are handled over the phone, but crimes like murder require in-person review at the district station.
However, on January 1, that process changed in the 7th District in Englewood when Burke reportedly rolled out her Bypass Felony Review Pilot Program, which covers only unlawful felony gun possession charges. Under Burke’s program, once police officers file these charges, they only have to be approved by an on-duty watch lieutenant within the CPD, who is responsible for ensuring that probable cause exists in the case.
According to Bolts, in the two months since the Bypass Felony Review Pilot Program began, Chicago police officers in Englewood have used the initiative to file at least 22 felony cases without review. So far, the program is only being used in the Seventh District in Englewood. However, Bolts reported that Cook County officials plan to review the pilot program’s performance every three months and could expand it to all 22 of Chicago’s police districts or even countywide.
According to Bolts, one recent incident in Englewood shows how the new arrest and charging process works under the Bypass Felony Conviction Pilot Program.
On Feb. 19, two Chicago police officers arrested a 40-year-old man in the Englewood neighborhood. They searched his car for drugs after they smelled an odor of “raw cannabis emitting from within the vehicle.” But instead of finding drugs, the officers found a 9-millimeter handgun under the driver’s seat. The man legally owned the gun but didn’t have a concealed carry permit. As a result, the officers arrested the man and took him to the lockup at the 7th District station.
According to Bolts, had the arrest happened anywhere else in Chicago, the police would have had to follow a longstanding process called felony review. This process requires them to clear all felony charges except drug cases with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before filing them. It aims to ensure cases meet basic legal and factual standards and gives prosecutors some oversight over how police officers justify their allegations.
In the Feb. 19 case, the CPD directly filed charges for aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon against the 40-year-old man.
Some officials say the new process is less time-consuming and helps address problems caused by high turnover.
But with CPD’s history of false confessions, coercion, and deception, some civil rights advocates and criminal defense attorneys fear that it may lead to unchecked abuse and false imprisonment in a city with one of the nation’s highest rates of wrongful convictions.
Some critics say the program is a step in the wrong direction, while others say watering down the felony review process would give police more autonomy, trusting the CPD to police itself.
According to Bolts, neither the CPD nor the office of Mayor Brandon Johnson, who appoints the police superintendent and oversees the CPD, returned their request for comment.
In 2017, in response to the Laquan McDonald case, the U.S. Justice Department released a scathing investigative report that found Chicago police committed civil rights violations against Blacks and minorities, who were often racially profiled on the streets. In the book “Crook County,” Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, a Northwestern University Law School graduate, said there were cases where police officers would plant guns on individuals before they were convicted of crimes.
Burke, while campaigning for office, made gun prosecutions an important concern in her anti-crime message. According to Bolts, she vowed to crack down on unpermitted gun possession and seek pretrial detention in most cases involving a weapon.
After taking office, Burke required prosecutors to seek pretrial detention for anyone accused of a felony involving a gun equipped with an extended magazine, drum magazine, or automatic switch. Previously, prosecutors evaluated pretrial conditions on a case-by-case basis.
Burke has also ordered her office to stop referring gun possession cases to the county’s Restorative Justice Community Courts, allowing charges to be dismissed and expunged when a defendant completes a restorative justice program. According to Bolts, the move gutted the caseloads of the community courts, of which 83 percent were gun possession cases.
