Mission

Mission : The Chicago Justice Project (CJP) is an independent, non-profit research organization. We strive to access and analyze data from criminal justice agencies to promote evidence based reforms that will better serve the justice needs of local communities.

CJP Data to Information Image The Chicago Justice Project was founded in February of 2007 with our mission to improve communities understanding and participation with the criminal justice system. Our work is designed to remove critical roadblocks to an open and just system of policing and criminal justice policy in the metropolitan Chicago area. CJP’s goal is to give people access to the information they need to assess – and improve – justice patterns and practices in the region. CJP aims to enable effective uses of government records to address crucial concern for community residents, advocates, and other stakeholders. CJP sustains dialogues and collaboration with members of impacted communities to move this effort forward through our 15 member Community Advisory Board who range from violence against women advocates to academic experts to representatives from community based organizations.

Informed Communities are Safer Communities

The Chicago Justice Project creates ways to get the information to make communities safer. We support evidence-based practices to ensure public services such as law enforcement are conducted responsibly and effectively. Our mission advances collaboration among citizens, police and relevant institutions by providing access to details regarding the impacts of the criminal justice system on their communities.

Access to information provides opportunities for greater civic participation in the criminal justice system. Agencies themselves, such as police, courts and human services use data to analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of their own actions. Good policing requires good evidence. Public agencies collect data about when crime happens, the types of offenses and where they occur. The Chicago Justice Project recognizes that public record keeping can offer much more than crime maps that show the safest ways to walk home. We envision a future where neighbors and policing agencies work together to turn this information into action.

Research shows that communities are safer when trust exists between the criminal justice system and the communities they serve. Successful community policing programs show that trust is built by actively engaging the community. Police and residents work together to identify the issues neighbors care about most and together they work collaboratively to address these concerns. Community-led reforms that are supported by evidence-based practices enhance public safety as well as help eliminate ineffective policies and practices. The Chicago Justice Project creates connections among police officers and community members by cultivating shared knowledge. CJP’s datasets have opened discussions on everything from how to promote effective citizen oversight of police activities to how to improve prosecution rates on sexual assault crimes. To date, CJP has relied on the Freedom of Information Act and issue-specific task forces to uncover trends and patterns in criminal justice data. The organization publishes issue reports to help provide context for understanding both individual crime incidents and the responses to those incidents. CJP’s analysts and advisors also use the evidence collected to evaluate best practices in an effort to improve the performance of the criminal justice system as a whole.

Our Citizen Open Data Access (CODA) project will incorporate community needs with new communication strategies aimed at transforming the way individuals gain access to information regarding law enforcement and crime in their neighborhood. CODA will provide communities the access and tools they need to verify that the experiences of their community members are actually part of a much larger pattern using data created by the criminal justice agencies and made available online. Communities will then be in a much stronger position to advocate for changes to the policies or practices of local criminal justice agencies.

First Reform in 50 years!

The first reform of the practices and transparency of the Chicago Police Board in the organization’s 50 years of existence passed the Chicago City Council in September 2011 due significantly to the results of CJP’s 2009 study of 10 years of their decisions. Our report uncovered both rampant absenteeism by board members and a pattern of failing to terminate the two-thirds of the officers that superintendents sought to fire over the decade we studied.

The reforms include:

Individual Votes Posted Online: The votes of each individual board member must be posted online for every case they vote on.
Written Rationales Posted Online: With each vote the written rationales must be included and posted online. This includes any dissenting votes.
Corrections for Rampant Absenteeism: The President of the Board must notify the Mayor's office if any member misses three or more meetings in a calendar year.
Member Term Limits: No board members can be reappointed to the Board after serving more than 10 years in their lifetime.
Executive Position Term Limits: Both the president and vice president positions must be reappointed every two years.
Making Recommendations: The Police Board now has the authority to make written recommendations on matters of police policy and practices to the Superintendent of Police. These recommendations must be posted online.

Data driven research

Other investigations have been represented in shorter issue briefs and covered on the CJP website:

An analysis of the nine bills introduced in Illinois General Assembly to rollback changes to the state’s new freedom of information law. These bills were all introduced within days of the new law going into affect.
An investigation into domestic violence and domestic related calls for service was completed in collaboration with the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network affirming the Chicago Police Department’s need for better ways to respond to homicides that occur inside a home as opposed to outside.
Research into four years of agenda items of the Chicago City Council Committee on Police and Fire. During the four years examined the committee’s agenda items covered donating old police and fire equipment 40% of the time and only focused on crime, violence, or police brutality 1% of the time.
An investigation in to the amount of money paid out by the four largest cities in the US related to civil litigation judgments and settlements for police related litigation.
An analysis of 18 months of decisions by the Chicago Police Board as a follow up to our 2009 study.

Using data to drive media & policy

CJP’s work has driven media attention to these issues and raised awareness on this wide variety of issues facing Chicago’s criminal justice system. CJP has appeared on all of Chicago’s major television broadcast stations, with additional coverage in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, WBEZ radio, and Chicago Tonight.

CJP has also helped policy makers gain important insights into both the issues listed as well as open government trends and Gov 2.0. CJP has testified before policy committees such as Chicago City Council’s Committee on Police and Fire/Public Safety Committee and the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission. Staff have briefed members of the Illinois State and Congressional delegations.

Issue wins build support for systematic change

In the upcoming years, CJP is poised to expand its demonstrated success with the creation of an integrated platform for the Citizen’s Open Data Access Project. The Sexual Assault Data Practices and Transparency Task Force will serve as the prototype. The task force is co-chaired by the offices of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, with CJP acting as the convener. The task force will engage the Office of Emergency Management and Communication, the Chicago Police Department the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the Cook County Circuit Court and will make recommendations for improving the agencies’ data practices as they relate to felony sex crimes based on CJP’s 2011 report. The purpose of the task force is to enhance the quality and the amount of data captured and released by the agencies. This project will constitute the most thorough and localized geographical study to date. CJP intends to have the task force issue a report in late 2014.

CJP is also expanding our working relationship with the Office of the Chief Judge of the Cook County Court system, the largest unified court system in the country. An agreement between CJP and the Office of the Chief Judge allows CJP access to five years of criminal court data for research purposes. Working with relevant community based organizations, as well as other stakeholders, CJP aims to conduct multifaceted discussions concerning what court data is collected and what should be available to the public. These discussions will also serve as an opportunity to identify innovative ways to use the court data in order to help communities become more informed.

Making good on our promise to base our efforts on the needs of communities our Community Listening Tour continues to make appearances throughout Chicago at aldermanic ward meetings, community events, and churches. As part of our efforts to measure the needs of communities for information from the criminal justice system CJP uses short surveys that allow us to quantify community needs. Our surveys are offered in both English and Spanish. We have created an interactive online data visualization on our website that will allow community members to learn about the results of the survey they took by both an overall view of the results and by a specific meeting.

To get involved visit the Outreach section of chicagojustice.org for volunteer opportunities.