According to the [Chicago] police department’s own data, officers primarily target drugs in search warrants but failed to find any in 95 percent of search warrants seeking narcotics in a three-year period
Data is based on an examination of 6,855 search warrants served at Chicago residences from 2016 to 2019.
44 Comments
- Bruce( no not him) - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:27 am:
At least their percentages are better than Tom Devore. /S
this provides some insight on why people are questioning the CPD’s $1.7 billion budget
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:35 am:
The war on drugs is so wasteful. That’s some “waste, fraud and abuse” of government resources right there that we can reform. Defund the Police is la terrible slogan on its face, but we can rethink the police, and criminal justice.
“This revealed Chicago Police disproportionately execute search warrants in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods. We learned many of the wrong raids we uncovered happened in these same communities.”
“CBS 2’s analysis of police data also found the neighborhoods with the most search warrants, like the Back of the Yards, were also those that had the most “negative” results. A negative raid is one where police did not make an arrest, nor did they recover any drugs, guns or other property.”
When anyone talks about structural or systemic racism this is they mean.
The standard to obtain a search warrant is showing “probable cause”. PC is a vague term, but i think a 5% chance of finding drugs wouldn’t cut it. There’s probably a 5% chance of finding drugs in any random home in Chicago.
When requesting a search warrant it should be required that they in form the judge that they are wrong 95 per cent of the time. And then the judge should think long and hard before granting request
What are the percentages from other departments?
There have been a number of federal prosecutions of police officers in past years who have kept drugs they seized from dealers instead of inventorying what they found.
Just sayin’.
It just gets worse and worse for CPD. If they fail 95% of the time, then really these raids are just a way to terrorize the local population. This country was founded, in part, to keep the government from unwarranted searches and seizures.
Here’s a law review article discussing success rates for search warrants in different jurisdictions. It suggests that an officer’s failure rate should be disclosed in a warrant application and considered by a judge: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1480&context=law_facultyscholarship
The article also suggests that a low hit rates on searches may be related to police perjury.
And almost every no-knock warrant/raid is in a black or brown majority ward. Many mostly white Chicago wards have had zero raids, while these have had hundreds in the same time period.
As if illegal drugs only existed in certain wards. Talk about a failed strategy, driven by a racist bias.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:20 am:
If 95% of warrants served in Lakeview or Streeterville failed then the entire system would be changed.
I figure that if 95% of those people at the wrong end of a warrant had the ability to get good legal help and the city was going to be held accountable then the system would fix itself.
Another reason there is little/no trust of the police in Black and Latino communities.
How could anyone have confidence in someone or some institution that was wrong 95% of the time?
- Twirling Towards Freedom - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:53 am:
State and local governments should get out of the drug enforcement game, except to support the Feds at their request. Let the Federal government handle it, focused on large scale dealers at the top of the chain. Of course, local police departments won’t give up the money that comes from drug related property seizures unless they are forced to.
So 95 percent of people who get searched for drug don’t have any. Apparently police have no incentive to make sure probable cause is actually probable, as opposed to extremely unlikely.
In creating an Executive Order prohibiting the transfer of some military items to local police departments starting in 2016, President Obama said “We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes get people the feeling like there’s an occupying force – as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) agrees: “When you couple this militarization of law enforcement within erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury — no knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture — we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.”
In a police state, the police become an army and an army needs an enemy. The Feds think they have met the enemy and they’re convincing local police departments the enemy is us.
In the wake of Breonna Taylor’s death, Louisville banned its police department from conducting no-knock raids.
But most cities and states nationwide still allow no-knock or knock-and-announce searches.
Experts have estimated that police carry out 20,000 no-knock raids across the US each year.
There’s no nationwide database that tracks them all, but at least 78 civilians and 13 officers died in police raids that went wrong between 2010 and 2016, according to a New York Times tally.
This is exactly why we need to defund the police. Call it what you will, but we all know that money would be better spent on unarmed peace officers, mental health care, jobs programs, domestic abuse programs, early childhood intervention, and education funding.
Confidential Informants are generally scumbag liars who will implicate nearly anyone other than themselves…to avoid prosecution for their crimes…just for clarity.
Much blame here is on the police and rightly so, but aren’t judges as much to blame? Seems like the threshold to get a warrant must be pretty low and loose, or judges are just incompetent. Or they don’t need to care because there is no o accountability for them if a warrant is unjustified. 95% failure is ridiculous. If you had asked me to estimate the fail rate I would have said 25% on the high end.
Considering how high risk this activity is supposed to be for law enforcement, you would think logically they would be concerned that 95% of the time they are sending people into high-risk situations that are “unsuccessful” the police would be concerned about that.
The apparent lack of anyone going “ok, what went wrong here” as part of a follow-up seems negligent and reflective of people who don’t face consequences for repeated failure.
They don’t have to do randomly, just do Mount Greenwood and Norwood Park.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 2:53 pm:
One principle of management is that you need to measure something to manage it. Another principle is that people will try to game the system. So think hard about how you measure and collect data.
This is really hard for me to believe. As I posted a few days ago I have been involved in serving 100s of search warrants . Our numbers where just switched . We found drugs 95% of the time.
95% failure and targeting minorities. Only one conclusion can be reached, all 2021 warrants will only be issued in rich, white neighborhoods. Should get at least 40% then.
- Bruce( no not him) - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:27 am:
At least their percentages are better than Tom Devore. /S
- Anonish - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:31 am:
With all the money they spend you’d think they could learn to game the numbers a little better.
- illinoyed - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:35 am:
this provides some insight on why people are questioning the CPD’s $1.7 billion budget
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:35 am:
The war on drugs is so wasteful. That’s some “waste, fraud and abuse” of government resources right there that we can reform. Defund the Police is la terrible slogan on its face, but we can rethink the police, and criminal justice.
- Southern - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:35 am:
Five percent success rate? Incredible. You have to wonder if they’d have better luck if they just chose addresses at random.
- Big Jer - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:37 am:
From the data:
“This revealed Chicago Police disproportionately execute search warrants in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods. We learned many of the wrong raids we uncovered happened in these same communities.”
“CBS 2’s analysis of police data also found the neighborhoods with the most search warrants, like the Back of the Yards, were also those that had the most “negative” results. A negative raid is one where police did not make an arrest, nor did they recover any drugs, guns or other property.”
When anyone talks about structural or systemic racism this is they mean.
- H-W - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:37 am:
So with a 95% fail rate, we can assume “no knock warrants” are guaranteed to fail, and also guaranteed to cause harm to citizens.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:39 am:
It would appear their CI’s are less than reliable.
- Sonny - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:39 am:
CPD needs to be blown up and put back together. If it takes more funding, so be it. Disaster clean up is expensive.
- Rabid - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:39 am:
The person that swears in court, made a mistake, with no recourse
- Quizzical - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:41 am:
The standard to obtain a search warrant is showing “probable cause”. PC is a vague term, but i think a 5% chance of finding drugs wouldn’t cut it. There’s probably a 5% chance of finding drugs in any random home in Chicago.
- DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:42 am:
When requesting a search warrant it should be required that they in form the judge that they are wrong 95 per cent of the time. And then the judge should think long and hard before granting request
What are the percentages from other departments?
- Keyrock - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:42 am:
There have been a number of federal prosecutions of police officers in past years who have kept drugs they seized from dealers instead of inventorying what they found.
Just sayin’.
- Funtimes - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:46 am:
It just gets worse and worse for CPD. If they fail 95% of the time, then really these raids are just a way to terrorize the local population. This country was founded, in part, to keep the government from unwarranted searches and seizures.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:50 am:
With a 95% failure rate, isn’t the term “probable” best described as being greater than 5% correct?
- Keyrock - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:03 am:
Here’s a law review article discussing success rates for search warrants in different jurisdictions. It suggests that an officer’s failure rate should be disclosed in a warrant application and considered by a judge: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1480&context=law_facultyscholarship
The article also suggests that a low hit rates on searches may be related to police perjury.
- walker - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:03 am:
And almost every no-knock warrant/raid is in a black or brown majority ward. Many mostly white Chicago wards have had zero raids, while these have had hundreds in the same time period.
As if illegal drugs only existed in certain wards. Talk about a failed strategy, driven by a racist bias.
- Skeptic - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:09 am:
And if CFD failed 95% of the time…?
- Jocko - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:10 am:
Methinks that drug search warrants are the easiest to obtain…the legal equivalent of a broken tail light.
- Frank talks - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:14 am:
What is the percentage of warrants that are no knock warrants and what is the percentage of effectiveness on those?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:20 am:
Frank talks, this isn’t Google.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:20 am:
If 95% of warrants served in Lakeview or Streeterville failed then the entire system would be changed.
I figure that if 95% of those people at the wrong end of a warrant had the ability to get good legal help and the city was going to be held accountable then the system would fix itself.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:25 am:
Clearly drug dealers have learned not to hide product at their residence. So why hasn’t CPD figured that out too?
- Moe Berg - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:35 am:
Another reason there is little/no trust of the police in Black and Latino communities.
How could anyone have confidence in someone or some institution that was wrong 95% of the time?
- Twirling Towards Freedom - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 10:53 am:
State and local governments should get out of the drug enforcement game, except to support the Feds at their request. Let the Federal government handle it, focused on large scale dealers at the top of the chain. Of course, local police departments won’t give up the money that comes from drug related property seizures unless they are forced to.
- anon2 - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:26 am:
So 95 percent of people who get searched for drug don’t have any. Apparently police have no incentive to make sure probable cause is actually probable, as opposed to extremely unlikely.
- Glenn - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:32 am:
In creating an Executive Order prohibiting the transfer of some military items to local police departments starting in 2016, President Obama said “We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes get people the feeling like there’s an occupying force – as opposed to a force that’s part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) agrees: “When you couple this militarization of law enforcement within erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury — no knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture — we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.”
In a police state, the police become an army and an army needs an enemy. The Feds think they have met the enemy and they’re convincing local police departments the enemy is us.
https://www.openthebooks.com/american_thinker_the_enemy_is_us/
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:33 am:
The War on Drugs was all ways a war on people…mainly targeting Black, Brown and Poor people.
Wealthy White people don’t use drugs…and don’t get their doors kicked in…either…?
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:37 am:
The question, “Who has profited from the War on Drugs?” has a totally revealing answer.
- Glenn - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:43 am:
In the wake of Breonna Taylor’s death, Louisville banned its police department from conducting no-knock raids.
But most cities and states nationwide still allow no-knock or knock-and-announce searches.
Experts have estimated that police carry out 20,000 no-knock raids across the US each year.
There’s no nationwide database that tracks them all, but at least 78 civilians and 13 officers died in police raids that went wrong between 2010 and 2016, according to a New York Times tally.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/states-that-allow-no-knock-police-raids-breonna-taylor-2020-9
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:47 am:
And to think our members of our heroin rescue team pay for our own gas, supplies and can’t legally get Narcan. We are at times misguided.
- Dutch - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:48 am:
95% does indicate it could be a broken system.
- Notorious RBG - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 11:59 am:
This is exactly why we need to defund the police. Call it what you will, but we all know that money would be better spent on unarmed peace officers, mental health care, jobs programs, domestic abuse programs, early childhood intervention, and education funding.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 12:08 pm:
Americans love to use drugs (freely) for recreation…never gonna stop…help those who seek help for the disease of Addiction…and leave the rest alone.
It’s called freedom.
- Jocko - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 12:19 pm:
==questioning the CPD’s $1.7 billion budget==
Those police misconduct settlements ($113 million for FY18) aren’t going to pay themselves.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 12:32 pm:
Confidential Informants are generally scumbag liars who will implicate nearly anyone other than themselves…to avoid prosecution for their crimes…just for clarity.
- Captain Obvious - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 12:35 pm:
Much blame here is on the police and rightly so, but aren’t judges as much to blame? Seems like the threshold to get a warrant must be pretty low and loose, or judges are just incompetent. Or they don’t need to care because there is no o accountability for them if a warrant is unjustified. 95% failure is ridiculous. If you had asked me to estimate the fail rate I would have said 25% on the high end.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 12:38 pm:
Rich people don’t use drugs…they use medicine…prescribed by their favorite (expensive) private Physician.
- OneMan - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 1:07 pm:
Considering how high risk this activity is supposed to be for law enforcement, you would think logically they would be concerned that 95% of the time they are sending people into high-risk situations that are “unsuccessful” the police would be concerned about that.
The apparent lack of anyone going “ok, what went wrong here” as part of a follow-up seems negligent and reflective of people who don’t face consequences for repeated failure.
- Dotnonymous - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 1:09 pm:
Chicago Narcotics Officers should call themselves… The 5% Crew?
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 2:28 pm:
- Southern - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 9:35 am:
They don’t have to do randomly, just do Mount Greenwood and Norwood Park.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 2:53 pm:
One principle of management is that you need to measure something to manage it. Another principle is that people will try to game the system. So think hard about how you measure and collect data.
- ISPRETIRED - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 3:07 pm:
This is really hard for me to believe. As I posted a few days ago I have been involved in serving 100s of search warrants . Our numbers where just switched . We found drugs 95% of the time.
- Lurker - Tuesday, Dec 22, 20 @ 3:12 pm:
95% failure and targeting minorities. Only one conclusion can be reached, all 2021 warrants will only be issued in rich, white neighborhoods. Should get at least 40% then.