CHICAGO (AP) — The court testimony of some Chicago police officers is under scrutiny with a newspaper report finding over a dozen examples where officers gave false or questionable testimony in Cook County.
The Chicago Tribune reports that officers gave faulty testimony in a variety of cases relating to big and small details against defendants who had a string of convictions and those who had no previous arrests. Since cases often come down to an officer’s word against a defendant’s, officers are able to testify with little fear of prosecution or discipline.
The issue has become part of a wide-ranging investigation of the police department by the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of the fatal police-involved shooting of Laquan McDonald, where police reports of the shooting differed with video footage.