Prepare the Lube!

Who are we kidding? There won't be any lube:

• After three years of negotiations, lawsuits and appeals, the Illinois Supreme Court this week will hear arguments from attorneys for the city of Chicago and the Fraternal Order of Police in a case that will determine the future of serious misconduct cases involving Chicago Police Department officers and the public’s right of access.

  The crux of the dispute is whether officers accused of severe wrongdoing may have their disciplinary cases heard and decided by a third-party arbitrator — as is the case for other municipal employees represented by labor unions — instead of the Chicago Police Board, which has been the city’s practice since 1961.

  Arguments are scheduled for Thursday in Springfield. A decision from the state’s high court could come before the end of the year, though it’s not yet clear how or when a new officer discipline system could be implemented.

Go read it all at the link. All we can say is we're damn glad we're gone from this crapshow.

Is This a Thing?

Because it sounds like "a thing:"

• Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has eliminated the public do-not-call list and a related disclosure list that once flagged as many as 200 current and former Chicago police officers with documented credibility problems, replacing them with an internal system that leans heavily on officers to report their own misconduct. The change, enacted through a December 2025 policy, has alarmed defense attorneys who say they now sometimes learn of an officer's troubled history as late as the morning of trial.

  Burke, who took office in December 2024, overrode the county's previous Brady/Giglio disclosure framework in March 2025 before rolling out the December 2025 policy, according to a timeline laid out by The Chicago Reporter. That policy replaced the old lists with an internal “officers relieved of police authority” list and confidential Brady/Giglio files, and it now requires prosecutors to document misconduct, dishonesty, credibility findings, and social media activity. Under the new framework, the Burke administration relies more heavily on officers' own responses to a standardized Brady/Giglio questionnaire, and disclosures are supposed to be made as soon as practicable rather than through a running public roster.

  Her predecessor, Kim Foxx, took a very different approach. Foxx maintained a public do-not-call list alongside a separate internal disclosure list, and Cook County officers were notified whenever they were placed on either one, with 90 days to challenge that placement. In July 2023, Foxx's office publicly released a version of that list identifying 174 current and former law enforcement officers, including 120 Chicago police officers, who were precluded from testifying due to severe misconduct — a roster that included high-profile names like Jason Van Dyke, Ronald Watts, and Reynaldo Guevara.

Obviously, you wouldn't have Officers testifying that were convicted of crimes, but Crimesha took it to ridiculous extremes and seemingly reveled using this list to assist in not doing her job, i.e. prosecuting crimes.

The pendulum will never swing to anything resembling years ago (this being a blue-city blue-state shithole, but any movement back toward the center can be considered an improvement.

Sig P320 Decision

This one flew under the radar:

• A federal jury in Maine said there were no defects in Sig Sauer's P320 in a case in an unintended discharge of the firearm.

  The jury considered product liability, negligence, and breach of implied warranty, and ruled unanimously in favor of Sig Sauer.

No word on the jury's experience with weapon usage, handling and ownership.

But the unsubstantiated stories were enough to panic many Departments into abandoning the Sigs as a duty weapon.

Any word on whether the City was compensating affected Officers and properly training them up on their new pistols? 

And Speaking of Rats....

Rodent problems up north in 020:

• Officers at a Chicago police district say overgrown brush and delayed maintenance have led to a rat infestation outside their station, prompting concerns about conditions and city response.

There's a video report at the link. Or try this one.

Obviously, Conehead is cutting the exterior maintenance budgets and also interior services as there is an Officer saying they don't even have janitors three days a week to empty trash cans and make sure the buildings are cleaned - because Officers never ever bring filthy dirty bedbug infested arrestees into police stations.

If we recall, that was reserved for the filthy dirty ILLEGAL ALIENS sleeping in lobbies for weeks and months at a time. 

Class Action Proceeds

This is why you don't chase numbers for bosses any more:

• A federal judge has allowed a major civil rights lawsuit challenging Chicago Police Department traffic stop practices to move forward on behalf of thousands of Black and Latino drivers, marking the latest chapter in a legal battle over how and why the department conducts street and vehicle stops.

  In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland certified a class of Black and Latino individuals who have been stopped by Chicago police since June 2021, or who may be stopped in the future. The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages but rather want the court to order CPD to change practices they contend disproportionately target Black and Latino motorists.

Ah yes, the "targeted" traffic stop allegation, probably hte only thing to ever come out of then-Senator Sparklefart's TSSSSSSSSSS cards.

• While the ruling does not determine whether the city violated the law, Rowland’s opinion places the current dispute in the context of more than four decades of challenges to Chicago police stop practices.

  The judge wrote that Black and Latino Chicagoans have repeatedly accused the department of discriminatory stop programs dating to the 1980s. According to the opinion, lawsuits from that era challenged aggressive pedestrian stops that often led to disorderly conduct arrests. In the 1990s, attention shifted to enforcement of Chicago’s gang loitering ordinance, which the U.S. Supreme Court found to be overly vague and unconstitutional.

We'll leave it to the readers to figure out what the demographics are for criminals, but the sheer volume of bad law passed by supposedly intelligent legislators has always been amazing.

But here's where Officers should be warned (again) about chasing numbers:

• By 2014, Chicago police officers were stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking more than 718,000 people annually, with more than 90% of those stopped identified as Black or Latino. Following criticism from civil rights groups, an ACLU report and subsequent litigation, the number of pedestrian stops fell dramatically. By 2017, annual stops had dropped to roughly 100,000.

  But while street stops plunged, traffic stops immediately skyrocketed. Beginning around 2016, Chicago police shifted toward large-scale traffic enforcement, particularly on the South and West sides. Traffic stops rose from about 83,000 in 2014 to nearly 600,000 by 2019, according to figures cited in the opinion. Plaintiffs contend the department effectively replaced widespread pedestrian stops with widespread vehicle stops, using minor traffic violations as a pretext to investigate drivers for guns, drugs and other criminal activity.

This crap about "pretextual stops" being "racist" has always been such bullshit. Every single instance is still a violation of the Law, passed by the legislature and signed by the executive branch. If they don't want it enforced for political reasons, then they have the ability and power to rescind the Law that they created, or create a list of Laws that will not be enforced by the Police if a certain racial or ethnic group violates the statute. 

We can all enjoy the two-and-three-tiered justice system together!

Big Brother is Watching

This popped up in our news feed:

• Bluetooth-enabled tasers and body-worn cameras, used by thousands of Australian police officers, can inadvertently reveal their real-time location to any criminal with a phone or laptop.

  Police services around the country have been warned of the security flaw. But despite the safety risks, especially to officers who are undercover, in tactical units or who take their equipment home, none appear to have acted.

  Devices that use bluetooth have their own unique serial number called a MAC address. Most mobiles, like Apple iPhones, have built-in privacy features that randomise the code and make them harder to track.

  This hacker realised US tech giant Axon, which sells tasers and body-worn cameras to police around the world, had failed to do the same.

Which was an odd coincidence, because two people emailed up this Case Report (click and enlarge to read):

 

Real? No idea.

Possible? Certainly.

Likely? In this day and age with body cams, air tags, GPS/RFID chips, META glasses and everyone's cell phone doubling as a portable spy device, oh Hell yeah. You just need someone dedicated enough to pull all the metadata together to filter it into something usable.

Beware. There isn't much you can do about it, but be aware that it's happening. Constantly. 

Don't Fall for This BS

The Department is looking to screw you into signing away Contractual Rights in the name of hugs and kisses. But they're asking for input:

• Thank you for visiting the Chicago Police Department’s public comment forum for the revised draft of the Community Police Mediation Pilot Program directive.
  

  As part of our ongoing mission to grow trust within the communities we serve, CPD again invites the community to review and provide feedback on the revised Community Police Mediation Pilot Program directive beginning June 2, 2026 through June 17, 2026. After the comment period concludes, CPD will review the additional feedback received to guide future revisions to the drafts. CPD will consider your comments before finalizing the directive.
  

  Below you will find a draft of the Community Police Mediation Pilot Program directive. Please provide your feedback in the space below the draft directive. Thank you again for your continued partnership in building a safer Chicago.

The title of the proposed Department Directive is: Community - Police Mediation Pilot Program.

It is essentially a "bitch-and-moan" session where you meet with a complainant on "neutral ground" and they get to bitch about how you treated them. The draft says nothing will be recorded, no recording will take place, no records will be preserved.

Don't fall for it. You have Contractual protections for a reason and you have recordings during actual CR investigations made for many reasons. Don't let COPA and IAD screw you out of protections while they further neglect their jobs to do actual thorough investigations.

Gun Safety Days

Informational post only - comments closed here.

Get your pistol looked at - it's the most important tool on your person. 

Terror Drones?

So were these stolen for domestic terrorism or for some foreign entanglement?

• Someone stole 15 giant agricultural drones in New Jersey — and experts fear a “nightmare scenario” if they end up in the hands of terrorists.

  The fleet of Ceres Air C31 drones, which are about the size of an ATV, were ripped off March 24 by a bogus delivery driver who duped shipping and logistics company CAC International in Harrison, according to The High Side substack.

  A phony bill of lading was presented at the pick-up location for the drones which was bolstered by a fake confirmation email that CAC International took to be legitimate, the report stated.

  The four-armed flyers can carry and spray up to 40 gallons of liquid chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, and unleash the payload over a 15-acre span in just seven minutes. 

The mind boggles at the possibilities here. And if you spend a serious amount of time at it, you'll drive yourself nuts.

Stock up on shotgun ammo at the very least - you can bet the Department won't even have an e-learning module about this.

Gun Safety Day Next Month

Haven't seen any notices about this yet, but here's an e-mail reminder:

• I’m a retired range guy, possibly coming back as the same in a civilian capacity. Mike Mette has my scheduled to work Gun Safety days at the FOP on May 27-28 at the FOP hall. As always, it’s free. Same offerings, most but not all manufacturers are there to inspect. It’s a great free event, though poorly attended the last 2 years. 
   
  Hours usually were 0800-1400’ish. Any mention would be appreciated. I usually message the busy districts in advance.

If we get a reminder, we'll post again closer to the date.

(comments closed here - informational post only)

More NYPD Shortages

NYPD pensions are based on salary plus overtime, a nifty little benefit. But with the islamo-communist mayor defunding everything that isn't "progressive," thousands of NYPD personnel are likely to bail out at their current rates instead of sticking around to lose money:

• More than half of the NYPD’s Joint Terrorism Task Force cops can retire right now, along with thousands of sergeants, lieutenants, and captains, worrying officials about the future of terror and crime fighting in Gotham, The Post has learned.

  Forty-five of 82 JTTF detectives – or 55% – have 20 years under their belts, which is enough time on the job to leave with a full pension, according to union data.

  There are 5,121 active detectives in the NYPD, and 1,193 of them — or 23% — are in the same boat, eligible for a full pension after 20 years.

  Another 698 lieutenants, or about 42% of the total 1,669, could retire today; 518 captains, or 66% of the 780, could leave; and 954 sergeants, representing about 22% of the 4,300 total, could exit at any time, according to union data. 

  Police are concerned that the thousands of veteran NYPD bosses and gumshoes will flee if Mayor Mamdani cuts overtime, which would significantly reduce their pensions, union officials said. 

A couple of years ago, there were ambassadors from dozens of mid-to-small city police departments recruiting from blue state $hitholes, including Chicago and New York, grabbing any warm trained body and incentivizing departures with tens-of-thousands of dollars.

We're imagining a lot of NYPD people will be filling these small town departments, greatly reducing opportunities along the way. Make your moves soon.

About Those Punitive Damages

As most readers know, punitive damages CANNOT be paid by the City - it's the Law. 

Hits like that come out of coppers' pockets. It has been common practice in the past that - after a verdict assessing such damages - Corp Counsel enters into negotiations pending an appeal whereby they'll try something like this:

• We're going to appeal this multi-million dollar verdict and tie it up in court for the next five years....but if you agree to drop the punitive damages against the Officers, we'll recommend to the City council that they approve this slightly smaller "settlement" and you'll get paid later this year. What you think?

And many times, the lawyers will tell their clients that a fast payout is the way to go.

This comment though....this would be bad news:

• From inside the 5th Floor, the Mayor is saying no deals. He feels it is time for the Police to feel the pain of paying their share of misconduct judgements. This will not be good for us. 

We've known a few Officers who ended up on the wrong end of these judgements and it's not a good feeling knowing that a portion - no matter how big or small - of all your earnings are going to someone who had a better lawyer than Corp Counsel.

Still?

This stat was true (and disturbing) back when we started. It doesn't seem to have improved much:

• A new police officer mortality study is putting hard numbers behind what many in the profession have long felt: the job’s hazards do not end when the shift does.

  Researchers analyzing National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS) data from 2020 to 2023 found that law enforcement officers had a higher all-cause mortality risk than the broader working-age population, using age-standardized mortality rates to compare the groups.

  The peer-reviewed study, published in Lancet Regional Health – Americas and available through PubMed Central, is based on death certificate surveillance data and focuses on “usual occupation,” a classification that reflects the job a person held for the longest portion of their working life.

And the death number?

• The study population included roughly 2.5 million working-age decedents ages 16 to 64, of whom 15,384 had law enforcement as their usual occupation. Researchers reported that the average age of law enforcement deaths was 53.7, and that most were men.

Nice to know that while we don't beat the odds often when we're gambling, we're doing better in retirement.

Retiree IROCC Info

This appeared in the comments and in a few emails that seem to be going around:

• The communist State of Illinois will be trying to take away retirees right to carry a firearm. Read the article below on page 4 of the FEBRUARY 2026 Retired CPD Newsletter below.
  
  ALSO, there is a NEW DATABASE (see below) where you can look yourself up to see if you are still certified as a law enforcement officer. If you are de-certified, you can not carry a weapon as a retiree. Thank Pritzker.
  
  https://www.retiredchicagopoliceassoc.com/News.html
  
  https://www.ptb.illinois.gov/resources/officer-lookup/

The first link goes to the catalogue of Retiree Newsletters and the February issue seems to address some of this. It seems that the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board can revoke your "retired in good standing" status for pretty much anything job related going back years - sustained CR numbers, Use of Force complaints, allegations of Domestics, etc. 

They can also revoke it for anything post-employment, including misdemeanor-type allegations.

The newsletter says that Lodge 7 is attempting some legislative maneuvers in Springfield, but no progress is listed.

Video EVERYTHING!!!

But since it turns out that the vast majority of the video shows citizens acting like assholes and police acting professionally, there's an effort to restrict who can see what. CWB reports: 

• CWBChicago editor’s note: Using Illinois’ open records laws, our team was recently able to secure body camera footage that showed a Markham police officer recovering a loaded firearm from the center console of a convicted murderer’s car. That video also showed a Harvey alderwoman identifying herself to officers at the scene, inquiring about the arrest of Tyrone Muhammad, who was released a short time later after an intervention by Markham Police Chief Jack Genius.
  
  In the following report, the Better Government Association details this year’s efforts by Illinois legislators to restrict public access to police body camera footage, restrictions that, if enacted, could limit transparency that is so critical in policing.

CWB reports there are six different bills (all of which seem to have died in committee) that would have further restricted body camera use, viewing and retention.

It pays to keep an eye on this stuff if you're still working because you will get trick-bagged if you run afoul of the constantly changing rules....and we all know how good the CPD is at keeping you up-to-date on changes to the law. 

Arbitration Win?

Anyone know if this is true?

• If you switched over from the SIG 320 save your receipts, we won our arbitration and the city has to compensate those who purchased them.

You shouldn't be penalized for following the General Orders if the City changes the rules in the middle of the game. 

There's a way for the City to avoid all of this nonsense and it's been proposed more than a few times. Most police departments in the nation or the entire world do it:

• go to a single model issued firearm

All weapon upgrades would be uniform across the board, all replacements, all parts, all repairs under a single contract, all armorers qualified by the manufacturers. In the event of a disaster-type scenario, all Officers would have the ability to swap out magazines with co-workers. 

But someone is obviously getting paid off somewhere along the line. 

Name Change on Tap

Crack addict and attempted murderer headed to court next week to change her name in an effort to conceal her criminal past from future employers:

• Whitley Temple is going on zoom Oct 6 to get her name changed to "Kendall"

Not sure if the States Attorney's Office is still tossing up roadblocks to prevent this. We think Prickwrinkle is still trying to line up a job for this drug abuser.

Skynet Laughs

Big Brother is always watching:

• In a sign of things to come as law enforcement tools evolve with the times, a Chicago police drone team is being credited with tracking down a man who allegedly fired shots outside Soldier Field this month.

  It happened just after 5 p.m. on September 14 when police received reports of gunfire near 18th Street and Lake Shore Drive, according to a CPD report. Officers responded in patrol cars, as they always do. But this time they had a little high-tech backup: a police drone unit was patrolling the area from above.

  As officers searching the area heard more shots fired, the drone operators reported seeing a man holding a gun on the west side of Soldier Field, the report said.

So how long have they been operating? What are the limitations on pursuits? What is the range of the drone? Or drones?

And most importantly, what are the qualifications and necessary phone calls to get assigned to the Drone Unit? 

Help Wanted

Hilarious:

• A slick TV commercial created by ICE that is currently airing on NBC Chicago and other local television stations is controversial for several reasons. The ad tries to attract disgruntled Chicago and suburban police officers to work at the federal agency that has ramped up immigration arrests since President Donald Trump took office. The blunt recruiting ad comes as ICE teams are marching through the city and suburbs making arrests.

  Also, the commercial takes dead aim at Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is not a fan of the agency or it’s tactics. 

  The ICE TV spot begins: “Attention Chicago law enforcement. You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city safe. But in sanctuary cities, you’re ordered to stand down,” referring to a no-cooperation policy that Chicago has in place. The TV ad offers a solution: “Join ICE, and help us catch the worst of the worst.”

  The commercial is a blatant attempt at poaching officers from already dwindling ranks at the Chicago Police Department and puts a bull’s eye on City Hall and Mayor Brandon Johnson.

  "Can I just say that it's a horrible way to recruit?" Johnson said on Tuesday.

Um, we don't see the national administration telling people that "law enforcement is a sickness." That's a step up from your failed administration already.

They don't wear cameras. They don't have four or five different oversight agencies looking to put you in prison. They're actually encouraged to enforce the Law. Their pension is system is unlikely to go bankrupt.

Sure, there are downsides, but if you're a young copper with less ties to this blue city blue state shithole and less family tying you down, it's worth a look. 

On a side note, has everyone been watching Conehead? We mean really watching him lately. Dude is literally breaking down in slow motion. It would almost be sad if he was a human being, but he's a worthless commie puppet for the CTU and Prickwrinkle.  (our insults are slightly more creative than Conehead's) 

This Again?

This pops up every so often, and is a clear example of why you ought to show up at FOP meetings to keep an eye on shit:

• The City's position is to eliminate all post-retirement health benefits except for statutorily required benefits and benefits promised to a closed group of certain annuitants who retired prior to August 23, 1989. The City has entered into a collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police for the periods of 2017 through 2027; that agreement includes the CBA benefit for the full term of that agreement. At this time, other than the new collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police, it is not known whether or when the CBA special early retirement health benefits will be specifically eliminated, modified, or extended.

  Therefore this year's reporting of liabilities is based upon benefits.

Someone addressed it in a different comment section, saying that if you retired under a current Contract, then they can't retroactively take things away - they can only screw the younger guys and gals moving forward. Which means whatever leadership is/was in power would have to sell you out....which is exactly why you show up at the meetings. 

Maybe not every meeting, but enough to stay informed.