Executive Summary
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act (SAFE-T Act) is omnibus criminal justice reform legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly. This report is the one part of a series of issue briefs relying on research, analysis, and investigation to evaluate the impact of the SAFE-T Act’s reforms related to policing behavior and public safety.
With the passage of SAFE-T Act, Illinois joined a handful of states in requiring all law enforcement departments to implement body-worn cameras. The use of body-worn cameras has grown in recent years, with hopes that they would shine a light on police-civilian encounters, promote accountability, prevent police from engaging in misconduct, and improve evidence collection. Illinois lawmakers hoped that by making body-worn cameras mandatory, the state could grow a culture of accountability and transparency in policing and improve community relationships with law enforcement.
As the use of body-worn cameras proliferates, it is important to assess whether they are being implemented in a way that achieves their original purpose: increasing police accountability and transparency. This issue brief examines this question in the context of the Chicago Police Department. It finds that despite the extensive reforms that Chicago has adopted, however, CPD has yet to consistently translate them into action. Specifically, CPD has failed to consistently adhere to body-worn camera requirements and to properly label and store footage. Additionally, the accountability structures both within and outside the Department have proven unable to address these failures, meaning that the desired culture of transparency that body-worn cameras are intended to create has not yet been achieved. Finally, the state reporting mechanism created to promote body-worn camera transparency is not equipped to address local failures with body-worn cameras like those seen in Chicago.
