Chicago
Sunshine already in Chicagoland.
It'll be here for a while.
For all it has to offer can be a challenging city.
City of Chicago, city Council.
Rules of Conduct for public meetings. 2023 to 2027.
Pursuant to the Chicago City Council rules of order
and procedure Rule 49,
the sergeant at ARM sets forth the following rules
of conduct to be followed during the public comment period
and the duration of all committee and city council meetings.
Profane, vulgar, threatening, abusive,
or disruptive language is not permitted, demeaning,
discriminatory, or harassing behavior
and speech directed towards others is not permitted.
Disruptive behavior, including disruptive
or disrespectful conduct
during others' presentations is not permitted.
Banners, flyers, or signage are not permitted.
Backpacks, large bags and sharp objects are not permitted.
Clear bags not tinted in color that do not exceed 12 by 12
by six inches will be permitted and are subject to search.
L. Food and beverages,
including in metal canisters are not permitted.
Cell phones must be placed on silent prior
to entering the meeting room.
Individuals must remain seated.
Public comment, speakers are permitted
to stand only when providing public comment.
Small handheld devices may be used only while seated,
and the user must refrain from interfering with the view
or hearing of other individuals, individuals or groups.
Failing to adhere to these rules will be asked
to see such disruptive conduct
and failure to comply will result in their being subject
to removal From the meeting by the sergeant at Arms,
The meeting on public safety is hereby call to order.
We will begin with a roll call to establish quorum.
Uh, Alder Alderman Hopkins is present.
Vice Chairman Yancy Alderman Chico.
Alderwoman Gutierrez Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Curtis Alderwoman Re
uh, alderman Sancho Lopez is here.
Thank you. Alderwoman Fuentes. Alderman Talia Farro.
Alderman Sdo, alderman Vasquez, alderman Kon,
alderman Gardner, alderman Martin
Alderman Minna, Howorth Alder Manhattan,
and Alderwoman Silverstein.
And let the record reflect
that Alderwoman Coleman is here in her capacity
as Vice Mayor pro tem,
and is allowed to be counted, uh, for purposes of quorum.
Uh, we do have a motion pursuant to Rule 39, uh,
to allow that to happen.
Alderwoman Coleman, where are you, Stephanie? Oh, okay.
Uh, we have a request for a Rule 59,
participation via remote means for Alderman Curtis, Tobar,
Fuentes, Bedo, Vasquez, Knutson, Gardner, and Martin.
Is there a motion to allow Moved
by Alderwoman had and hearing.
No, no objections. So ordered.
Uh, we do have some public speakers before I call on them.
I just wanna remind our public speakers
that the subject matter, uh, of today's hearing
is a personal matter
and it's much more personable to some than others.
Families have lost loved ones.
Families have seen loved ones fall as a victim of violence.
Some of those families do not know the fate
of their loved ones
and have not been able to attain closure because of it.
This is a serious subject matter,
and it goes to the heart of some of our Chicago residents
that have experienced these tragedies.
I would ask our public speakers to keep that in mind
and to observe appropriate to quorum, uh,
as you take advantage of your three minutes
of public testimony.
And with that, I will call the first witness.
Brenda Stewart.
Good morning. I'm Brenda Stewart, the Executive director
of Ernestine's Daughter, a, a non-for-profit here, um,
in Chicago on the west side of Chicago.
Um, for the last past 10 years, plus, we have been working
to, um,
get some assistance and help in the missing
and murdered women in our community.
I live in the community. I grew up in Chicago, um,
for 59 years.
I've been a part of Chicago,
and it is very personal to me.
I'm not gonna say the person's name that's on there
that was on the missing and murdered women.
Um, we have been fighting for years,
and I would like to see a lot of change.
I would like to see, uh, you come into the community
and sit and talk.
I would like to see some of these abandoned buildings turned
into something that is profitable to the community.
You know, we could get, uh, people are homeless.
We can get these people together and let them work,
and then live in these building, you know,
together we can find a solution if we work together.
Thank you.
Uh, also, please let the attendance roll call reflect the,
uh, participation of Alder woman Lee, uh,
vice Mayor Burnett,
and of course, Al Alder woman Taylor, uh, who was, uh,
her leadership was instrumental in providing the initiative,
uh, for this meeting.
The next speaker is Zoe Lee.
Uh, Good morning. Um, yes, you're correct.
It's a lot of abandoned buildings.
Um, domestic violence is very serious.
And, um, I'm also dealing with domestic violence, uh,
when it comes to the city of Chicago
violating me when it comes to my family's property.
Now, Dorothy Tucker, I see you over there.
Last year I came to you
and I told you about the city
of Chicago stealing black people's property and land.
I also told you that the city
of Chicago unlawfully demolished my family's property,
which is, uh, a legal imminent domain.
I showed you this same demolition paper
that says the owner is the city of Chicago,
which doesn't make sense
because we have the deed, the original deed.
This ain't no, no, uh, quick claim deed.
This the original deed, right?
I also let you know my mom paid $40,000 for blueprints for
what she was going to do over there, right?
But you brought me donuts.
I get triggered every time I go to Stan's Donut
because you brought me some donuts.
You sat, you listened to me, you listened to my mother.
You listened to the voicemail from the City
of Chicago Law Department that gave the three options.
But your producer, your young producer,
told you not to take the case.
But she was so happy to take that case about breaking into
that lady's house, the police breaking into
that lady's house, and she was naked.
You know why? Because they make money off of our oppression.
Anything that we do that embarrass us or kill us
or anything like that, when it comes to domestic violence,
it's gonna never stop
because they keep making money off that.
That's what the Democratic Party does, okay?
We make our bodies
of black people's oppressions problems when it comes
to our death or anything that's traumatic,
like domestic violence.
The Democratic Party is never going to fix
because that's how the Democratic card
party keeps making money.
I came to you because the city of Chicago
and Cook County is still in black people's property.
You are an investigative reporter,
and you will not take this story
because you know that it will open up the floodgates.
Your father owns property with a white developer.
Is that why is he stealing property too?
Because I mean, that's, this is what happened.
This is a, this is a money laundering scheme,
and this is what they continue to do.
So, I would like you to circle back around
because I just sent you a text.
I just sent you an email on Saturday, Friday,
letting you know about my press conference on my land on
at Sandpiper Lounge.
And you didn't respond. So why don't you be a journalist?
Award-winning and take my story.
The next speaker is Patricia Puente. Patricia Puente.
Patricia Puente. I'm, uh, against Noyce.
My name is Patricia Puente.
I am against Noyce ordinance
and, um, racing drag cars that go
by on, um, midway, a young lady came to visit her mother.
She was crossing Cicero in a drag car,
racing car hit her, and she died.
The mother wasn't able to see, uh, her daughter
nor the daughter, her mother.
But was the racing car caught? No. Why?
Because there's no red light enforcement there that they,
they're their racing, their passing the red lights.
I live on 63rd and Knox.
I have pictures that on the September 16th,
the cars, it's from 11 o'clock all the way
to two 30 in the morning.
I stayed out there taking the pictures of their cars,
passing the red light with their flags, Mexican flags,
dirt drinking with their beers
with the girls on top of the cars.
And I'm like, where are a law enforcement?
I called them like five times and nobody showed up.
And when they showed up, they just passed in front of me.
What is going on?
What is going on in Chicago?
Why are you guys permitting this? That's it.
Thank you.
The next registered speaker is Jerry Boo Lee
Jbu p Lee from Cocoa.
Good afternoon. Good morning.
Um, city council meeting members and everyone here.
My name is Jbu PRI Lee
and I represent the the Girls League Coalition,
which is a campaign
of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, um,
mothers opposed to violence everywhere,
south siders together, organizing for power
and good kids, mad City.
And we're all committed to raising awareness about the issue
of missing black girls and women
and getting policies in the city of Chicago
that make black girls and women safer.
I'm here today because there is a crisis, a crisis
that we can no longer afford to ignore.
Black women and girls account for a third
of Chicago's missing person cases.
Yet despite this staggering number, our communities are left
behind with the least amount of resources, attention
and media coverage.
Imagine for a moment, your daughter, your sister,
or a friend, just disappears.
And the silence that follows, its deafening.
That is the reality for far too many black
and brown families here in our city.
When our girls go missing,
their stories don't make the headlines.
Families are left feeling dehumanized.
Their cries for help are often ignored
and minimized by a system that was
designed not to serve them.
Our communities deserve and demand more.
We need civilian liaisons in every police district, people
who can provide compassionate communication with families,
keeping them informed
and supported throughout the investigation process.
We also need a Ebony alert,
a Ebony Alert system here in Illinois dedicated specifically
to alerting the public when black women
and girls go missing.
Because Amber Alert, as it stands for, it's not enough.
And finally, we need all levels of government, city,
county, and federal to work together with our communities,
with our communities.
This issue is not a law enforcement problem alone.
It is a societal one,
and our solutions must be community driven.
In Minnesota, they've taken a historic step
with the creation of the missing and murdered Black Women
and Girls office, a dedicated,
focused office addressing this crisis.
We need something similar here in the city of Chicago.
One solely committed to missing black girls and women, um,
and missing persons.
This office would ensure timely investigations,
provide support to families
and advocate for policies that will prevent more
of our girls and women's from disappearing without a trace,
our girls are not statistics.
They are loved, they are needed. Their lives matter.
Let's not wait until the next tragedy
happens to take action.
We need your commitment and resources
and partnership to bring it home today. Thank you.
Thank you. You. Uh,
next registered speaker, Reverend Robin Hood.
Reverend Hood.
Good morning. Morning. How did you know my first name?
I only put Reverend Hood on that envelope.
This moment is moment is surreal to me.
For over the last 25 years
I've been doing this work trying
to find out why don't the Chicago Police Department
care about black women and girls?
And the reason why I said it like that,
'cause 25 years ago,
there were quite a few women found at two different alleys
on the south and west side of Chicago.
And the things that we've heard was unimaginable.
They lived a high risk lifestyle.
So what that says to me, if women come out
and go to the store, they live a high risk lifestyle.
If they work nights, they live a high risk lifestyle.
This was unfathomable to me.
But then as I dug deeper, I seen
that this not only a Chicago problem, this is
a United States problem.
We have this golden opportunity to change that projection.
We can change that, that
that should be totally unacceptable when a black woman
or girl is missing and they come up dead.
We've had opportunity to solve some
of these crimes doing this work.
If it wasn't for people like Coco and Mo
and, uh, different organizations that have worked together
for years, some of this stuff wouldn't even be solved.
We are not law enforcement.
We not supposed to be solving murders.
We supposed to assist from the community standpoint to help.
I think we got this great opportunity
for the first time in the city of Chicago.
Listen to these young folks.
Listen to these mothers that have lost their daughters.
These daughters that have lost their mothers.
They, the ones got the answer.
And when we talk about a task force,
a task force can't be Chicago Police Department
and city council alone.
It has to be youth.
It has to be a local school council member.
It has to be a faith-based leader.
Together, we can fix this and change this. Thank you.
Next speaker is Jay Africa Porter.
Good morning everyone. My name is Africa Porter.
I'm a resident of the Fifth Ward Hyde Park since 1973.
I wanna thank my alderman Alderman Yancy, for bringing this
to my attention that this meeting was happening today.
Um, and for sharing the topic of today
by being domestic violence muff, I find it very interesting.
I come from a long line of organizers, activists, servants
of the people, and humanity.
My father, the late great reverend Dr.
Kwame John Porter, was the first SEOC chapter President
for Dr. King for Chicago.
My mother at 90 years old is the vice president
of the oldest civic organization,
created the Alfredo Wells Duster Club, which organizes
and recognizes the Ida B.
Wells. Last week, on Thursday,
I was pushed down at the Sophie Hotel
in Hyde Park by man.
I don't know. To this day, I still don't know his name.
I have asked for its name.
I've made a post about it
to put it on notice that it happened.
See, I advocate for a lot of people.
I've been an activist and an organizer for 40 years.
Started at 10 years old in Inglewood.
I find it appalling that somebody knows his name.
But now that I'm on this side, I have
to advocate for myself.
Fell down, fell into another person
who fell into somebody else who was eating dinner.
This person has apologized on my social media only
because I made a post about it.
I've been threatened. I've been told to take my post down
or else I'm going to jail,
or I'm gonna have to feel the wrath of something
I've been serving in my community.
I very long time. I need help.
You know, um, I've been following Dorothy Tucker
and the violence against women.
I was at Trinity. Amazing job.
It has to stop. I'm advocating today, not just for me,
but for all of the women who has to speak
before me, said get off, uh, work late at night.
And the risk is higher.
Those of us who are single parents
who are doing the best we can with what we got,
that happened in my neighborhood.
I helped the Sophie when they first opened.
I helped with hiring practices.
I have three of seven days a week.
I'm at the Sophie bringing business there.
When my artist clients are in town, they stay at the Sophie
because that is my community hotel that I represent.
If that happens to me, excuse me, in a hotel full
of over a hundred people, what is happening?
I'm asking for support. I'm asking for help.
I'm asking for advocacy. Thank you so much.
The next registered speaker is Shannon Bennett from Coco.
Yes. My name is Shannon Bennett.
I'm the executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community
Organization, otherwise known at Coco.
So first of all, I wanna thank the all the persons
and all the folk that put this hearing together.
This issue is very important to our community.
We've worked on this issue for over eight years
because a young girl at the age of 13 came to our office
and said, what's going on when black girls go missing?
Where's the amber alert?
What happens when black girls go missing?
This young girl, AYA, came to our office
and said she wanted to do something about
it seven years ago.
And I just turned back
to her and asked her what you want to do?
She knows how we roll. She knows who Coco is.
She says she thought for a minute.
She said, I wanna do a march. I'll never forget that day.
We organized a march.
Within two weeks, we organized a march between young people,
some of whom are here today, young girls and young boys
and women and men work together.
And that march happened in two weeks on the last day of CPS.
That March is still going to today.
It's called the We Walk for Her March.
You Google it right there, you'll know about it.
This March has drawn a lot of attention locally
and also nationally for young people leading the way
and dragging our old asses with us with them.
So this work is important.
I just have a few points that I wanna reiterate
that my sister Ri Lee mentioned earlier.
We have some recommendations
because we feel that we know that the experts have spoken,
the young people have been working, they've been organizing,
and they know what needs to happen.
One of which is
to have someone who's a liaison in the departments
of the police department throughout this city
that is a civilian that can liaison between families so
that they don't get the stories that Ms.
Teresa, who you hear about later,
every different week she calls,
there's a new detective on the case.
Every time she calls, the person is on vacation.
That has to stop. But it only happens in our communities.
It's only allowed to happen in certain communities.
That has to stop. So a liaison that is not a police person,
police officer, will be able
to hopefully connect those parents
and those families to updates about their loved ones.
So that's one recommendation. Another recommendation.
You heard the state of Minnesota is leading the way
with an office dedicated to black women.
They prioritize black women. It didn't say women of color.
It didn't say, you know, multicultural. It said black women.
The city of Chicago has
to do the same thing in order to lead the state.
We're gonna start here in Chicago first,
and then the state of Illinois can follow with an office.
You all have that opportunity with us in partnership
to bring that to fruition.
In addition, we cannot have a task force for taskforce sake.
I'm Antit Taskforce. I'm not with that.
I'm gonna be clear because sometime it wastes too much time.
A lot of work has been done.
So if we do a task force quickly,
and we get to the action of making sure the city
puts some things in place, whatever ordinances
that we come from, the community, they have
to emanate from the people who are closest to the pain.
Y'all understand that people closer
to the pain should be close to the su.
I got you brother. Last three.
Thank you Mr. Bennett. We appreciate you.
Uh, the next speaker is Bridget Rouse. Bridget.
Okay, we'll call her again, uh, at the end.
Uh, next speaker also from Coco Khalil.
Good morning everybody. Good morning.
How y'all doing? My name is Khalil.
I'm sorry that I sound like this.
I'm still finna say my speech
because I know my voice still matter you though.
I, yeah. Um, I'm sorry. I have to pull it up.
My name is Khal. I am a youth organizer at the Kenwood Oak
Community Organization, also known as Cocoa.
For the past seven years, I've been a part
of the Girls League coalition.
Since 2017, we have done a march from 35th of King draft
to 51st King Draft to bring awareness to the miss
and the murder woman on the southwest side of Chicago.
We do that every year
because we know that this is something that needs
to be brought to everybody's attention.
For seven years, we have planned
and organized, demanding change,
and a system that has ignored our mothers,
our sisters, and our daughters.
For too long, it should not have taken seven years
to act on the safety and wellbeing of these women.
That means so much to us.
This march is not just about honoring those
lost, it's a call for justice.
We refuse to let these stories be these women's stories,
be silenced, forgotten, thrown away,
or just poof.
It's gone. Just letting it disappear. I have sisters.
I have a mother. Their lives matter. Their lives matter.
And we must continue to fight until their voices are heard,
until our community is safe,
until this system changes for good.
As a young man in the Girls League coalition, I see my role
as a supporting and standing and solitary.
So solidarity with women.
It is crucial for men to be a part of this movement,
recognizing that the safety and wellbeing
of women is everyone's responsibility.
Thank you. Have a great day. I hope this goes through.
And next speaker is Wan Sims.
So, um, it's,
that was 64,000 Black
American women missing two years ago.
I just read that. There are 97,000 cases since 2022.
However, alderman Hopkins, I find it curious that right now,
at the end of the year, though, we have a full year.
This would be the thing that come up.
But Ms. Coleman, I find it curious
that you know nothing about a billion dollars
on Black American children.
On the heads of black American children.
These are black American children, though.
They be little girls.
Little girls who aren't protected because you know why?
They have no representation.
It comes in the form of individuals like you
and Ms. Harris next to you who are lukewarm.
So as you all are lukewarm,
our children are spewed out into the streets,
into the jails, into a host of different things
and know you might laugh and make your side comments.
This is the reality of us, everything
that was said in the mic.
And you might say, oh, I'm a black woman too.
I should be protected other.
Yeah, but you're a black woman with power right now.
A black woman is able to enact change in us,
but y'all too busy being vindictive
and doing whatever it is that y'all do down here in the city
council as y'all destroy everything.
Public safety. I found out last night that y'all,
that the city of Chicago would go so far as a cheap cops.
The people that serve and protect us, 200
and something million dollars to the tuna
suit over over time.
But then I don't find that to be
because the mayor who said during the hiring freeze
that no public what public safety,
public safety workers won't get hit, cut two classes
from the cadet trainers with the CPD.
So we understand that the, there's no moral value here.
And so as we look out
and hope that we can find champions
for this issue right here,
that should have been brought up first day.
Because every day a black American woman, child man, it's,
is found either dead or they come up missing.
And to what effect?
Because the CPD is owned by whoever this,
whatever this corruption is that allows for it to happen.
I have a case two 3D 7 9 5 9 7
that you all have not addressed it
with the corrupt judge over there.
Hop What, what's his name? Um, troll Bridge.
And forget it because I'm all, I think I'm losing my mind.
I know I'm losing my mind, Dylan, in this,
because there's nothing that's going to happen.
I'm just gonna speak in this mic.
You're gonna be the president of the Black caucus.
This lady's supposed to speak for us, advocate for us.
There's a group of them. They, they like the Avenger.
Y'all know the Hulk Ironman and them,
but we don't got that in them because they've abandoned us.
The naacp, we got nothing.
So Black American children will continue to come up missing.
Women will continue to come up missing at the age
of 10 and 20.
And imagine the horrors they face.
The next speaker is Jessica Jackson.
Good morning. Um, I'm more than aware
of the sensitivity of domestic violence.
Okay? I think most people are.
But with that being said, my name is Jessica Jackson,
and I know you recognize that name Dorothy Tucker,
because I too reached out to you
to do an investigative report on the fact that Cook County
and the city of Chicago was stealing
black people's property.
I said, don't you roll your ass like you don't know.
I'll pull up these emails. Don't you do that
Now, I told you that they were stealing
black people's property.
I sent you the documentation in the envelope.
Me and you spoke on the phone several times.
I sent you several emails.
That's the violence against black women.
The fact that this city was steal
property from black women.
And you had the audacity
to do a investigative report on TV talking about this time,
these women, the violence against women.
These women look like me. They look like me.
Yeah, I look like you. And what did you do about it?
Nothing. What did you tell me?
Did they take your property already? No.
I'm trying to keep it, I'm fighting them not to do it.
You told me that I had to get in touch
with you once they took my property.
Don't you nod your head like, I'm lying. Don't you nod.
Okay, I'm gonna pull up them emails
and I'm gonna send them to everybody in here.
Don't you play with me. Let me tell y'all something.
This is the problem. While we can't get nowhere
as black people, you know why?
'cause we circling a wagon, we dealing with each other.
What's wrong with us is it's time now
that black people gotta be courageous enough
to deal with white folks.
We too scared to deal with white people.
That's how we going to get ahead.
Now we gotta deal with white people.
She don't wanna deal with them. White judges.
She don't wanna deal with them.
White public administrators,
just like a whole lot of them in here.
They been new about my issue with my property.
Jeanette Taylor. Stephanie called me who did me.
I give her that they know what's going on,
but they too scared to deal with white people.
So they keep on with these task force organizations talking
to each other when they know they ain't going to do nothing.
It take us to deal with white folks to make a change.
You know, it, you the same age graphic, uh, age I am.
You know what it's going to take to make change.
You gotta have enough courage to deal with white people.
A final call for Bridget Rouse.
Bridget Rouse, are you in attendance?
Okay, Bridget Rouse is our next speaker.
I,
Bridget Rouse is our next speaker, followed
by George Blakemore.
Good morning, Sue. Good morning.
Um, this is my first
time in City Hall.
My name is Bridget Rouse. Okay, I'm not,
okay.
I am here today speaking on behalf of
my sister Sonia Rouse.
And I've written something here just to kind
of stay on point.
Um, I was just told about this meeting
last evening at about 8:00 PM
so I appreciate the opportunity to speak,
but I'm just getting back into Chicago at about
4:00 AM this morning.
So, um, thank you for the opportunity.
My sister is Sonya Rouse
and she deserved better than
what she got from Chicago Police Department.
And the lead detective Detective Ky of the Fifth District.
My sister went missing March of 2017.
From the very beginning,
my mother reported my sister missing.
Her case was grossly mishandled, lacking due diligence,
compassion, and follow through
the needed return calls.
The follow through from Detective Yarki
of the fifth District to my mother was simply not done.
What's interesting to me is
Detective Yassky has enough time with the department
that meaning over 27 years to be able
to receive his full pension.
But instead he sits collecting overtime,
pay from the tax paying Chicagoans
and the very community that he's been sworn in to protect.
And he's causing trauma
and more pain to black families
by not doing his responsibilities
and being held accountable
as the days rolled into years.
And as I stand here before you today, I stand with trauma
and pain that is unmeasurable.
There is not an hour a day
or a week that I am not cradling my mother's tears.
My sister was the oldest of three.
My mother is a single black strong woman
that educated herself
and three daughters with higher education.
And to that we're left with
and incompetent Chicago Police Department.
It seems my sister's,
it seems my sister's missing report has a last,
Yeah, let her conclude.
It seems my sister's missing report
has not only her last name
and a report number,
it seems it also has two letters.
CW colored woman.
It's clear to my family
and to many black families
that have a non-trusting relationship
with Chicago Police Department over many years,
missing many black cries, black voices,
and purposely ignoring black women in this city.
I'm left with my sister screams in Chicago.
More than a third of missing cases are black women.
I was married to a Chicago police
officer and he was not black.
For over 20 years, I've come to understand
that missing black women cases predominantly in black
districts, are handled without the same due diligence
as white women in predominantly white areas.
I understand the cruelty of racism carried out for decades
by the city as well as the department.
I understand my sister Sonya's missing report.
Having those two letters, CW, will not be worked the same.
Historically, we have all learned in order for change
to truly come about,
we must call out injustices That includes
with the police departments and governmental seating change
and accountable and accountability
is desperately needed in this city
and within the department
to ensure there will not be any further black missing women,
myself included with the letter.
cw, thank you for your time.
The final speaker is George Blakemore
Talking loud everything.
But Mr. Blakemore said something
that everyone realized this last week.
Racism. What? Racism.
And, and I, I made a point.
You don't see white women in here.
You don't see Hispanic women in here.
You don't see Asian women in here on this particular issue.
Mr. Blakemore said raise C All he was loud.
All he was all painted up. What did Mr. Blakemore say?
Raise C. But you have black people
in high place
and the face black faces.
What is the problem here? Racism. Racism.
So on the plantation, the black woman was raped.
The black man was raped. The black children was raped.
When were, when were our people realize
what had happened to us.
It's still happening to us.
We are still on the white man plantation.
Even though we have black faith in high face
faith controlled.
This, this, this last speaker said they had a cold color.
Something that mean a black wall.
You don't have to investigate that case like you do.
A white woman, a Asian woman or a Hispanic woman.
And, and the egregious act that what happened,
the black men watched how mean the,
the the master was to the black woman.
And some black men became mean
to black women too.
Uhhuh, this is a mess here.
The, the men saw how the white men treated the black woman
and some of the black men treated the same way.
So black lives doesn't matter to these people.
And I'm urging each one of you say,
black lives matter to me.
I'm black to see that's your problem. Fall in love with you.
From your nappy hair to your big nose, to your thick lip,
to your black black hole.
All in love with you. Focus on you.
Self preservation is the first law of nature.
I didn't bring this here.
Self preservation stay focused on you. Not color.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
And I'm gonna try to, my minutes go so quickly
quicker than this other now say that black lives now
black lives now to me, you don't have
to love nobody but yourself.
Start giving you everything you need. And you,
This concludes our public testimony.
We do have, uh, one item on the agenda
before we get to the presentation.
Alderman Minna hop Penworth moves approval
of the Rule 45 report, uh, hearing no objection approved
by the attendance roll call.
Um, I will now turn the, uh, meeting over
to our two co-conveners, uh, Alderwoman Taylor
and Alderwoman Coleman, uh, for introductory remarks.
Before we introduce our invited speakers,
uh, Alderwoman Taylor.
Good morning. Morning.
So I'll first start by saying, as a black woman,
as a black mother, as a black daughter,
too often when we go missing, there's no amber.
Look, there are no dogs there.
There's not even a, a space where you can call the police
and say, my child didn't come home.
The first thing you're asked, did they run away?
Did y'all get into a argument? How often do they do this?
Has this happened before? Never a real urgency to the point.
If you look at FBI statistics, they've added white
and Latino women and missing and then black by itself
because there are so many missing black women.
Um, I am a daughter
of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization.
And so for those seven years that they did their march,
whether I was an elected official
or an organizer, I've been there.
I ain't leaving because that is important to me.
I don't have to talk about Daisy Hayes today
because her family is here to speak about her.
But I will speak about DEA Stanton.
She was a young woman, a young trans woman
who lived in the 20th Ward who came up missing
in Bronzeville.
Her family marched to the police station
and within a couple of days she got answered.
She was killed by somebody she was dating
because he was ashamed that she was a trans woman.
And at that time, the person who was second in command
was superintendent, ex superintendent Fred Waller.
And so this can work.
When we work together, too often we're asked to do the work
of what police and detectives should be doing.
And so that is a problem, which is why this is not just, um,
another subject matter hearing where we are just talking
and making each other feel good.
But it's actually giving, getting information
and making sure that we put money
into this domestic violence missing women's, um,
operation that we wanna have.
I want to say thank you to the young people
who miss school today.
Thank you to the young people who took the time out.
So young people from the Kenwood Oakland Community
Organization to move.
Thank you. There was a young lady who, who actually,
the young lady who brought this
to our attention was in seventh grade.
She came from a closed school.
When they merged all over to the Malison Elementary,
it was her and other young people said, why is it
that when we go missing, there's no Amber alert.
Why is it when we go missing? There are no dogs.
Why They're not search parties.
And they're absolutely right.
How many of you in this room, remember JonBenet Ramsey?
How many of you remember the, the, the Bradley girls?
The Bradley girls are still missing. They're in Chicagoan.
They have siblings who attended Molly Moison Elementary.
Just imagine having to look at the face of a mother who has
to force herself to push through
and take care of her other children, knowing that two
of her children were taken from her and it took too long.
That is the issue with this.
There are a bunch of different things in place.
The state has a task force.
So the task force is not going to be enough
unless you put your money where your mouth is.
And there are some real work.
And so we've gotten a commitment from Superintendent
Snelling to say, this is something
that they're gonna push and they're gonna work on.
And so this is nothing new to us. It's heartbreaking.
I'm not going to tell Daisy Hayes story,
but imagine them having it on video.
They saw her being taken and the system did nothing.
And so people are absolutely right.
The system is used to doing nothing,
but we gotta hold their feet to the fire.
And so I'm not a black woman who doesn't care.
I've been here. It's easy for you to,
to throw around what people don't do.
You ain't been there. I've been here.
I didn't wake up and decide that I wanted to do this,
and I didn't choose this job.
It chose me. I was happy in organizing.
'cause at least the young people will hold you accountable.
At least they don't lie to you.
At least they'll tell you
what's on their heart in their head.
That's not what we do here.
So I understand why people are disappointed.
And so this is a new day.
This is why we have all of these folks here.
'cause it's gonna take all of us to find these,
these young missing black men and black women.
'cause the black men numbers are just as high as the women.
We just don't talk about it too often.
And so I'm asking that everybody that came today that you,
that you be a part of this.
Don't let us walk away without a plan.
Don't let us walk away without your phone numbers.
Don't let us walk away
with just the promise of another meeting.
Make sure that we walk away with something tangible.
Thank you.
Thank you all. The woman Coleman.
Thank you Chairman Hopkins.
Um, and to the Public Safety Committee.
Um, the most disrespected person in
America is a black woman.
The most unprotected person in America is a black woman.
And the most neglected person in America is a black woman.
As a black woman from Inglewood, 60 0 4 South Elizabeth,
I grew up just three minutes away from Sister Africa
and where the Porter Family's church still exists
on 64th Street.
I know what it's like to be studied, to be analyzed,
to have all types of data for the last 40
to 50 years about you and your community.
But I couldn't sit dormant when the investigative report
that Ms. Tucker gave our city.
And I knew that I had a partner in Alder woman,
Jeanette Taylor, to bring this issue
forth to the city council.
I didn't just say, oh, that's messed up.
I wasn't numb to the fact that we as black women make up 16%
of this population of Chicago's population.
However, we are a third of every act
of crime in the city.
Our young women, our young women, our go, our daughters,
our nieces, our our our children
make up almost half of the human trafficking
that's happening right here in the city of Chicago.
When I heard Sister Africa tell her story of
what just happened to her at the Sophie,
and we consider Hyde Park as the good part, right?
That's where black folks, professionals go
to have an enjoyable experience.
Experience. But I wanna commend you
because we as black women, we suffer in silence.
And the days of suffering in silence when acts
of violence have been committed to us is no more.
That's why today is happening.
I can't tell you how many times that we as women,
black women, but we as women, especially the four women
of color that I'm looking at,
have been disrespected right here in this council chambers
from trying to help and serve people in our city.
The days of silence are no more.
And I wanna especially commend, uh,
Madam President Karen Wilson Freeman,
who is an Alabama right now advocating for black people.
So shout out to you President Freeman.
Also wanna thank my mother, Bishop Shirley Coleman,
who is a survivor of domestic violence
and who is leading forth the charge
for Women Pastors United,
because it's not just going to be us and government.
It takes our clergy committee,
it takes our business community.
It's going to take our civic community, it's going
to take our educational committee community.
And certainly it's going to take command.
Um, superintendent Snelling and the entire police department
and their commitment to acting on violence against
black women before a young woman, a child, a daughter
or woman comes up missing.
I'm sure there was some act
of violence committed against her.
So to every black woman here, whether your case has been
domestic violence, whether it's been a housing issue,
whether it's been land stolen from you,
whether it's been disrespected,
whether it's being a man shoved you, the days
of silence is no more.
So I want to thank you for your voice. Your voice matters.
Your voice counts.
And you have advocates
and leaders right here that is
listening and fighting for you.
Thank you, chairman Hopkins.
Thank you. Uh, Alderwoman Coleman, uh, would like
to remind, uh, committee members, uh,
that you have dual roles here.
Typically, uh, we have interaction,
we have questions from committee
members and we will get to that.
But first, uh, I'm going to ask you to yield the floor,
uh, and give your attention
to the voices you're about to hear.
Uh, it takes courage to share the lived experiences, uh,
that we have lined up for you to.
So please hold all your questions, uh,
and simply spend the next time, uh, listening with attention
and respect, uh, to the voices that of those who have been,
um, experienced by this.
And with that, we will turn it over, uh,
to Alderwoman Taylor to call the first witness.
Um, good, good morning. Uh, my name is Yumi g Grigsby.
I'm Chief of policy in the mayor's office.
I will turn it over to my colleague, Noreen Hashin Wanni,
to commence the introductions, um, in the box.
Good morning.
I don't know that you can hear me,
but my name is Noreen Hasheem Wanni
and I'm the first deputy of policy.
And I will ask that the members in the box introduce
themselves as well as their affiliation today.
I, I'm Jared Smith, uh, commander
of Youth Investigations Bureau.
Detective Chicago Police Department.
Dorothy Tucker, investigator reporter with CBS Chicago.
Adriana Carta, supervisor Division on gender-based
violence at the Department of Family and Support Services.
Shakira Richards, director of Program Administration,
youth Guidance, working on womanhood.
Trina Reynolds Tyler, data Director at
The Invisible Institute.
Sarah Conway, senior reporter at City Bureau.
Good morning. My name is Chelsea Whittington,
representing the Chicago Urban League.
Good morning. Uh, my name is Lavinia Hood, co-founder
and the executive Director of Mothers
of Postal Violence everywhere.
Thank you.
My name is Rabbi Michael Sef, uh,
human rights activist from Chicago Activist Coalition
for Justice and Social Rabbi Rabbi from, uh, be Shalom,
Zaki in, in Chicago.
Good morning. My name is Kayla
and I'm a youth intern
for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization.
Good morning. My name is Kiana Yani Butler.
I am a restorative justice instructor at Good Kids Mass
City, GKMC.
Thank you. Good morning.
My name is Theresa Smith
and I'm also a, um, participant in the cocoa,
um, organization.
Good afternoon. My name is Brenda Myers Powell.
I am the co-founder of the of Ernestine's daughter.
Hi, um, I'm Madeline Patis,
senior Policy Advisor in the mayor's office.
Thank you. And we will start with, um,
testimony from Theresa Smith and Kiana Butler from Coco.
Okay,
Good morning again.
My name is Theresa Smith
and I am the daughter of Daisy Hayes.
Um, my mom went missing in May, May 2nd, 2018.
So, um, I went everywhere.
I went to the police stations everywhere I could think of,
I'm tired, I'm exhausted.
I went to churches everywhere. No one would help.
Someone gave me cocoa information.
I went to them and asked them for their help.
And they helped me to get this far or as far as I got.
So with that being said, you know, once we got to
to organizing things
and putting things together, doing our own searches,
our own everything, then CPD
decided they wanted to get involved.
So once they got involved, I got the runarounds every day.
I called every day, sleepless nights, no sleep, no eating,
couldn't drink water, couldn't even, I wasn't even mobile.
I couldn't even drive my car.
That's how distraught I was about the whole situation.
And then when you called to check on your loved one
or to get any updates about what's going
on, have you heard anything?
Oh, the police are on vacation, don't you know
that when one go on vacation they all go
on vacation at the same time?
I don't know that I do not work inside.
Um, CPD then just the things they were saying that your mom
also, you know, frequent the liquor store.
What was the problem with her going to the liquor store?
When I'm sitting here telling them, I know my mother,
my mother can go anywhere in the city of Chicago,
never had anyone to do anything to her
because she was loved like that.
She was able to move around, go everywhere.
So I'm telling them to look into her boyfriend.
Oh no, nobody wants to listen to any about that.
Then when they finally listened, they let 'em go.
Then tell us to make sure that nobody f**k with him.
Like we, the we, the criminals, like we are the victims.
But we made us like we was the suspects, you know,
taking my DNA fingerprints
'cause I was the last one in her unit.
But come on now, like everything was towards the families
and study, you know, doing the job of trying to find
and figure out what was going on.
So as time go by, time progresses.
We still doing, us doing everything we need to do.
And again, you got the detectives coming to you telling you,
oh well, you know, they say she was here.
They say she was there. But if you know your loved one,
you know what your loved one capable of doing
and what they wouldn't do.
So it goes back to where we do need to be speaking in more
with CPD people that lived this, that did this.
So they can understand how to talk to somebody.
How to have empathy for their family instead
of giving them the runarounds
or making them feel like, oh, we are not wanted
because we don't live in a certain, um, zip code.
And that's the way I felt throughout this
whole entirely thing.
So like, we need to do more like looking to us
because our area codes and zip codes are different,
but it could still happen to somebody somewhere else.
But it happens to us more often
because we're not looked upon.
Again. That was the most troubling time in my life ever.
I still haven't came back from there.
That was six years ago. I'm still trying to cope with this.
Her body was never found.
I never got a chance to have a funeral.
I have no resting place I can go to and pray or just sit
and talk with her because there was no one, nobody.
Then the man, not only that, the man was acquitted.
He was a acquitted.
They got all this on video that him dragging her out,
he's going back and forth from her unit.
CPD dropped the ball.
And reason why I say they dropped the ball
because everything that he went and used to clean in
and out her house to clean up with, they never took that
to get DNA to the DNA lab.
So with all that being said, like take your time.
Do your work from start from A to Z
because everybody matters.
And just to see them tell this man he's acquitted.
Do you know how that took touch?
My teenage son, I was so broken up and hurt.
So where I looked around and saw my son break down like
that, it was heartbreaking.
And that'll make a young man be, be filled with anger.
Now he's gonna go out here and do these same crimes
and everything else that some women like me that's trying
to teach my child not to be that type of way.
But it take a society, it takes everybody and,
and law enforcement, politicians, everybody.
It takes a whole village. It takes all of us the same way.
You all demand respect. We demand respect. Also.
I'm not here to put nobody down.
I just want everybody to work together, learn
to work together with us.
We are not monsters. Everybody's not a villain.
I'm a law abiding citizen.
Never been arrested, never did anything.
I'm paying taxes and I want to be respected
by being a taxpayer.
So when I have a problem that people come
and help the police and everyone helps me with my problem,
it's a issue for all of us.
Everybody in here is here for a reason
and we just all want help to be a better society.
We could take a lot of these crime rates down if we all work
together and y'all put us first too.
Like we, we shouldn't be feeling like that.
We are not wanted, we are not welcome.
You know, or you getting backlash from the police.
You getting this, you not getting the
satisfaction that you want.
People have to have empathy.
Everybody has a job, but you also have to have empathy.
Everything don't go by the book sometimes you gotta have
common sense in order to solve a crime.
Also, I do it at work every day. Like for real.
Everything don't have to go by the book.
You have to have common sense.
When you do the two things together,
you'll get a better outcome.
And again, I'm just saying put us, put some type of,
make us feel some type of something.
You don't have to really care. Put on a pretend face.
Just help us when we come for help. Just come and help us.
We can help y'all too. We can do it together again.
They just do a search party.
Me and Coco did a search party also.
We move and everybody else didn't nobody do no search party.
We walked them streets. We walked the streets of Woodlawn.
We looked through garbage cans, we looked through bushes,
we looked under concrete, under dirty mattresses.
And we was even willing to go to the um, to the landfill.
If they'd have gave us the proper, um,
equipment to go out there.
We, 'cause they said cost a million dollars to look
for in a landfill.
So her life wasn't worth anything, huh?
But here it is, years and years and years.
They still looking for, um, Stacey Peterson with bulldozers.
Still look for JonBenet.
Knew she was dead and still search
for her till they found her killer
that was right there in the house with her.
That make it make sense. We all deserved that same break.
Nobody deserves to feel like how I feel
because don't nobody know how I feel right now that I have
to wake up every day.
Her birthday was just Tuesday, would've been 75 years old.
72, I'm sorry, 72 years old. And she not here to celebrate.
I don't have a body. I couldn't go to the cemetery.
I couldn't stand at a urn, nothing.
This bothers me every day.
'cause I think one day she gonna walk up
and that's trauma to my brain.
I'm a very smart person,
but I'm losing a little bit right now
because every day I think I'm gonna ride
down the street and see my mama.
I think she gonna knock at my door.
I sometimes I get a phone call at work.
I think when I'm thinking they calling
me like we found Daisy.
That's terrible. Feeling
to feel every day when a whole system lets you down.
People don't understand. It's terrible.
I come on with a good face, but baby, I sit in my room
and cry many a hours, many a nights.
Like what did I do wrong? Why these people didn't help me?
What did judicial system, I can't even talk right now.
How did the judicial system fail me so bad?
So like right now I feel like I don't even wanna
vote for nobody.
'cause ain't nobody right, nobody. We in a win-win.
We in a no-win situation right now for a presidency.
How's this going? This is so corrupt.
Nobody is feeling how we are feeling. How I'm feeling.
I barely eat now still six years later.
This is not fair. We all deserve the same justice.
I'm willing to help any and everybody.
I don't care what color you are. I'm out there with you.
You need my help. 'cause that's what we here for.
We supposed to help each other.
Not turning a blind eye to it. Went to police stations.
We done went to the ex. Um, superintendents.
We gonna have a meeting with you.
We gonna do this Ken Fox, we gonna have a meeting with you.
Then you send your foot soldiers never see the big dog.
You only see the foot soldiers. Like it doesn't make sense.
Help us all. We all need the same help.
Everybody need the same help no matter what color, race,
zip code, area code you live in.
Everybody needs the same help.
And one thing about CPD, what y'all need
to do is really get empathy.
'cause y'all so mean sometimes I don't care
if I call 30,000 times.
You should be able to answer my my question without giving
me feedback of having a nasty attitude.
I'd have to call the supervisors over supervisors
'cause I'm getting a negative feedback.
Don't you know that you know all this,
you know the ghetto girl rock that, that's so, that's so,
and and unprofessional.
Very unprofessional to where I got tired of calling.
I ain't gonna even call no more. I don't even wanna call.
That's how bad. And that's how y'all make us feel
and make us distrust and just feel unsatisfied, unwanted.
That's the worst feeling ever.
And your mom is a fragile 65-year-old,
about five feet tall, barely 80 pounds.
Get stuffed in a suitcase.
You see her get stuffed in a suitcase
and get trailed ran, rolled out onto the elevator,
took her downstairs, put in a dumpster.
This man took every piece
of trash out the other two dumpsters and cover over here
and waited on the garbage people to run.
'cause he knew what time they was running.
He did this at 5 47.
The garbage people came at seven o'clock.
He knew what was going on. Everything was on tape.
I just don't understand how this man was acquitted
and the treatment that was just,
that was just adding salt to the injury.
Just for him to be able to do that
to a woman in a senior citizen building.
Where was security? Where was everybody at?
Everybody failed. My mother. Every last one of y'all.
I'm so serious. Everyone failed. My mother, she got nothing.
Nothing. Thank you.
Thank you Ms. Smith. We are going to move to, um, uh,
Dorothy Tucker's, uh, presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you so much Ms. Tucker.
We're um, turning it over to you.
Thank you. And thank you to the Public Safety committee
for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this morning.
To share details of our investigative series.
As many of you as you know, I am from Chicago.
I spent the first 13 years of my life in town,
better known today as Lawndale.
I spent my high school years in Austin.
My father still lives in the neighborhood.
My sister lives in Garfield Park.
My brother lives in River Forest.
I've raised my three children in Hyde Park. This is my city.
I love Chicago.
I love telling stories
that will make our city a better place to live.
We launched our series Investigating Injustice.
Two years ago, it began with CBS,
new Chicago data journalists Elliot Ramos, analyzing decades
of Chicago police data.
He poured over information that existed for years,
but some of it had never been made public.
The data included 20 years
of crime incidents plus the age, race,
and sex of every crime victim.
It amounted to 8 million pieces of information.
And it took several days to analyze what we discovered.
Quite frankly, surprised our investigative team.
The analysis revealed a troubling pattern when it comes
to crime in Chicago.
The people bearing the brunt of violence
and non-violence in this city look like me,
my daughter, my sister.
They look like some of your wives and mothers.
Remember, based on the data,
we're not just talking about a couple of years,
we're talking about black women being the number one targets
of crime year
after year, consistently since 2001.
Let's take a closer look at just one year, 2022
of the more than 2000 victims of all crimes that year,
more than 65,000 were black women.
Black women accounted for about 30%
or nearly one out of every Thi Vic, three victims of crime.
But here's a fact. As the older woman pointed out,
black women make up just 16%
of Chicago's population in certain categories
of crime impact black women more than any other demographic.
For example, black women represented 24%
of property theft victims, 38% of battery victims,
40% of rape victims.
I've thrown a lot of stats at you,
but behind every number is a face.
As part of our series, we spoke with several black women
who were brave enough to share their stories,
and here is one of those reports.
We're gonna pause it until we can get the audio.
Chicago Sunshine
already in Chicagoland.
It'll be here for a while,
For all it has to offer can be a challenging city.
New at 10, we're learning more about the victims
and the horrific hit and run.
Over the weekend, at
Least 57 people shot
Over 38 violent robberies in three weeks,
Especially for black women.
Ms. Patterson is moving slowly just out of the hospital,
recovering from gunshot wounds.
I get in my car every day
and I'm concerned about what will happen to me.
You know, I don't know if today's the
day somebody wanna carjack me.
I don't know if today's the day that they wanna rob me.
I don't know. And that's scary about being in Chicago
and being a black woman because we are not protected.
Consider a mundane trip to the gas station.
In 20 22 66 black women were carjacked
or robbed at the pump.
I was filling up my gas for the week.
It was over the weekend. I was filling up my gas
for the week, for the work week. Um,
Sierra Jameson was one of them. I
Had a, a young gentleman come up to me
and ask me, did I smoke?
I said, no, sir, I do not smoke.
She wasn't driving this car. She was driving her prize.
2018 Black Jeep Wrangler. That's what the man wanted. He
Was like, literally, come right here,
b***h. Gimme your keys.
Even though he had a kitchen knife, the single mother
and aspiring nurse with a 6-year-old son
with autism said no.
What made me say no? Because I observed him.
I could tell that he was really, I, I could tell
that he really didn't know what he was doing
because he was flinchy.
He was nervous. She
Also saw two other women nearby who had her back
and a bat.
So I'm doing this. I said, gimme your back.
Gimme your bat. So he did be like this.
He let go. Then he ran.
Jamison was naturally believed, but then she got angry.
It was a few men here
after the incident saying that they,
that this young man was standing here the whole day.
But he didn't attack anyone until she came along.
I'm not sure because I'm a young black woman.
He wasn't target me. I, I know he didn't target the, the man
that came up and through him.
I guess he feel like I was gonna
be vulnerable and be like, who?
Get the key? But no, he got the wrong female.
If black women feel like they're targets of crime,
they have good reasons.
Look at the stats.
Simply going
through their daily lives makes them vulnerable.
Last year at grocery stores, 277 black women were preyed on
by criminals in and around Chicago Parks 162.
Even in the sanctuary of a church,
47 black women vowed police reports.
Now the public transportation, so many rely on
769 black women faced assaults, batteries, robberies,
and other crimes, just trying to get to work,
return home or go to school.
And they came from right here,
Kenya. Your Merrills and her
mom were attacked by a mob of robbers
and the red line at 95th Street.
After leaving a downtown college,
He punched me in my face.
I said, I already knew I was gonna die.
So I just said, lemme just,
she my daughter, so she won't die.
Fortunately, mom and daughter, were not seriously hurt.
We can't say the same for Na Williams, uh,
for a late night snack,
I feel like I done had a life changing moment
that's forever gonna stick with me, simply
because I went to go get something to eat.
A couple of Ys at Maggie's. That's all she wanted.
It was here in Bronzeville a few months ago
where her life changed.
I wasn't in an argument with anyone. I wasn't at a party.
I wasn't caught in a crossfire.
The police report listed the incident as a street crime.
Last year, 1,130 black women were attacked
and injured on Chicago streets.
I was targeted. Three strangers,
unprovoked started screaming Ed Williams
inside the restaurant.
Then they followed her to her
Car. That night
I feared for my life.
What happened next was
that life changing moment. You saw the
Gun he shot, boom, boom, boom,
and just start shooting at our head.
Her tone today, kind of matter of fact.
And that was it. I didn't even know I was shot right away.
But these photos from that night,
her hospital bed scream, agony.
The biggest burn I ever felt. My teeth were blown out.
I have no teeth here on the side.
Um, I was spitting out bullets and teeth at the same time.
Williams misses her smile, yes,
but she acknowledges her blessings.
Most people don't survive,
you know, being shot in the face.
I'm just thankful I'm so blessed to be
Here. We need to
take you back to Sierra Jameson's story.
Remember, she survived the attempted carjacking. I'm
Grateful I went home to my son.
I thank God every day that I'm here
because it could have went a different way.
Jamison went home to her son on that day.
But less than a month
after this interview, she was the victim of another crime.
Only this time she would never see her son again.
We're honoring her legacy. We're honoring her life.
Jamison was murdered just days
after celebrating her 30th birthday, found strangled
inside her garage, her body line next to her Jeep Wrangler.
The family released balloons in her memory. My nieces
Don't flush, but my niece is always in here in spirit.
I can't cover every story,
but I hope you understand how important this one was to me.
Sierra Jameson was one of 620 murders last year,
just days after she was killed.
Her former coworker was arrested and charged with the crime.
Too often, unlike in Sierra's case, as many
of you have said, murders of black women go unsolved.
So I commend those devoting their time
to the Illinois task force on missing
and murdered women in devoting the time
that you are putting today to the issue.
The goal of our investigation was
to shine a spotlight on data that
until now had never been exposed.
That for decades in the city of of Chicago,
black women have been disproportionately impacted by crime.
As one expert said to us, it's an epidemic
that has been ignored for too long.
When we shared our findings with dozens of city
and county leaders, and including police superintendent
Larry Snelling and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Fox,
they too were surprised.
CBS New Chicago is committed
to investigating injustices against black women.
This year, we hosted a 90 minute call
to action conversation featuring people
who play important roles in the discussion, including
domestic violence experts, victim advocates,
and your colleague Stephanie Coleman,
superintendent Snelling and state's Attorney Fox.
They talked about what can be done now
and in the future to make meaningful change.
They concluded that there are no easy answers.
However, the express your desire
to continue the conversation.
Since the call to action special, we've been running PSAs
that offer viewers a QR code, linking them
to a resource guide we created.
That guide contains information and how,
and how women in their most desperate hours can get
financial, emotional, and mental health support.
We will continue our series investigating injustices
by reporting on this hearing
and what actions city leaders take
or don't take to make Chicago safer for black women as well
as everyone who lives, works and visits here.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Tucker.
Good morning Again.
I wanna thank all of the alders present,
including Alders Yancy, um, chairman Hopkins,
Alder women, uh, Taylor and Coleman.
A special thank you to all of our partners in the the box,
especially, uh, Ms. Dorothy Tucker for, uh,
the presentation.
Um, but also Trina Reynolds, Tyler, Sarah Conway, um,
members of our GBV Task Force
and Women's Advisory Council, um,
and also our DFSS partners, um, CPD, um,
and as well as, uh,
representatives from the Chicago Urban League, uh,
rabbi Michael Benef of, uh,
the Chicago Activist Coalition for Justice.
Um, and our advocates from Cocoa Move, good Kids,
mad City and Youth Guidance.
Thank you to all of you for being here today.
My name's Yumi Grigsby. I'm chief of policy.
I'm joined today from the mayor's office with, uh,
by Noreen Hashin Wanni, who's our first deputy of policy,
as well as Madeline Patti, who's our senior policy advisor.
I wanna talk today about our vision for a better, stronger,
and safer future, particularly in the context of
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
So in the heart of Chicago, our vision
for the future is clear.
We aspire to build a better, stronger,
and safer city where every youth
and community has access to the tools
and resources they need to thrive.
This vision is not merely an ideal.
It is a commitment to fostering an environment
where opportunity is abundant and equity is a reality.
Our mission is rooted in the urgent need
to transform the systems
and practices that have perpetuated both current
and historic inequities.
And we acknowledge the wounds of the past
deep seated injustices
and purposeful disinvestment
that have left many communities behind.
And we know that to truly create a, an inclusive Chicago,
we must not only address these inequities,
but actively repair the harms that have been done.
Our theory of change is simple, yet profound
by centering class, race
and gender equity in our policy making.
We're committed to sharing power
and decision making processes.
We are committed to engaging residents directly creating
space for their voices
and perspectives to share the policies
that impact their lives.
This commitment to integrity
and transparency will strengthen our democracy
and empower our communities for why we're here.
We're here today. We know
that gender-based violence knows no boundaries.
But the reality is that it's impact.
The impacts are often felt disproportionately in
communities, um, that are marginally marginalized
and suffer from historic disinvestment.
There's a harsh truth that stems from years
of disinvestment in systemic inequities.
Today we're confront a pressing crisis in Illinois witnessed
a 32% increase in domestic violence,
victim deaths last year alone.
Among those most effective are indigenous,
black and latine women.
These statistics represent real lives and real pain,
and they demand our immediate attention.
We must elevate the experiences of black women
and girls who are disproportionately vulnerable to violence
and often criminalized for their survival strategies.
This intersection of racism
and sexism creates a cycle that we cannot ignore.
It is our responsibility to, to dismantle these barriers,
ensuring our responses prioritize healing
and support over punishment.
Moreover, we should also acknowledge
that immigrant women face significant challenges
that often go un unnoticed.
Nearly 60%
of married immigrant women report experiencing higher rates
of domestic violence compared
to their non-immigrant counterparts.
So in response to these challenges,
our administration has taken concrete steps in terms
of allocating additional funding to the,
the gender-based violence survivor Fund.
But let us be clear,
combating domestic violence requires all of us,
and it is not solely on the government.
It is a collective effort,
and that's why we're all here today.
We need to challenge harmful behaviors,
foster healthy relationships,
and create a culture that believes in survivors.
As we continue this vital work,
I wanna emphasize the importance of community engagement
and the work of everyone here, including the alders,
our city's gender-based violence dome, uh,
gender-based violence task force.
Also, um, members of our administration and our departments
and our sister agencies who are all here.
And most importantly, our community advocates
who have the lived experience
and the recommendations that we need to follow.
This October and every month,
we stand united against violence.
And together we believe that we can create a Chicago
where everyone has the opportunity to find safety's ability
and the resources to thrive.
And with that, I will turn it over
to my colleague Noreen Hashem Ani,
and also Brenda Myers Powell, who is a member
of our GBV Task Force
and also the founder of Ernestine's Daughter.
Thank you, Yumi.
Um, my name is Noreen Hashem Ani,
and I serve as the first Deputy
of policy at the mayor's office.
I wanna thank all of the alders here today,
particularly Alderman Coleman
and Taylor, for their partnership
and for allowing our office to contribute
to this hearing and the resolution.
Um, I won't take too long.
I just wanted to echo Uni's gratitude on behalf
of the administration for our partners here, all
of you in the box, all of you
that have given comments today,
and those of you that have reached out
to us about the importance of this issue,
I also wanna thank our representatives from the Chicago
Police Department, department of Family
and Support Services, department of Public Health,
mayor's Office of Community Safety
and Mayor's Office of Education, youth and Human Services,
and our gender-based violence task force,
who are all present here today.
Mayor Johnson's commitment to resolving this issue
with a full force of government is evident
by the representatives we have here today.
And we know that we will need to do this together.
And we are here to ask for your support
and the coalition support as we look to next steps.
The gender-based violence portfolio at the mayor's office
lives within the policy team.
We do this because it allows us
to work across departments such as the ones
that we named earlier and bring in intersectional
policymaking for intersectional issues.
Under this portfolio, we liaise
with the gender-based violence task force.
These are appointed members that serve
to provide recommendations
to the mayor's office on gender-based violence prevention
and intervention strategies.
And with that, I would like
to introduce Brenda Myers Powell, as well
as Shakira Richards, both
who serve on the gender-based violence task force.
Brenda sits on the US Council for Human Trafficking.
She's a published author, the founder
of Ernestine's Daughter, and identifies as a survivor
of human trafficking.
Thank you, Noreen, very much. Um, wow.
This has been one morning, has it, uh, the stories
and the excitement in everything that is going on right now
and toward this subject.
But this subject should have had the attention
that it's getting right now, many years ago.
And let me tell you why you're looking at a, a missing,
almost murdered girl.
Um, 1973,
around the area of Good Friday, I was kidnapped
and put into the trunk by two pimps.
And they kept me for about six months and more.
Um, and trafficked me,
beat me, um,
played Russian roulette with my head.
I mean, it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.
It was months of being, uh, groomed by two gorilla pimps.
And while I was there, the thing
that kept me alive was that I knew
somebody was looking for me.
So I had to fight to stay alive
because I knew somebody
was looking for me,
and they would find me soon if I just held on,
you know, because that's what I thought.
I finally escaped
through this big fat white trucker.
So when you talk about white people, I, I, I don't agree
because they have been friends to me.
A trucker got in his truck and asked him for a date,
and he called me a little girl.
'cause that's what I was, he said,
what you want, little girl?
And I started crying and told him what happened
and how I needed to go home.
He got me back on.
And when I went upstairs, you see, I was a product of
a alcoholic grandmother.
And when I got upstairs, she looked at me.
She said, that's why I never looked for you.
That broke me right there when she said, she never looked
for me because I thought I was worth looking for.
But that broke me.
And I left two days after that
because I couldn't stand to be in a house
where nobody cared enough to look for me
after what I had been through.
So I was, I was, I I I was fair game
for the next pimp that got me.
I spent 25 years on the streets of Chicago
and many other cities prostituting.
I've been shot five times. I've been stabbed over 13 times.
I've been trunked again and kidnapped many times.
That's my story. And if you wanna read about it,
I have a book that's out that you can read about it.
But that's my story.
Now, I tell people,
and excuse me for being very blunt in this mo in, in, in,
in here, I went from the whole house to the White House.
I sit in the US Council on Human Trafficking,
picked by the president, picked by two presidents
to serve on this, on, on, on this US Council
for Human Trafficking.
And it's been an honor. It's been a great honor.
And when they sent me there, the first thing I said is,
I'm going to do this thing on
missing and murder black women.
And I went there with my, you know, jacked up with my suit
and everything on, ready to, you know, talk about us.
Because see, they have a task force on indigenous women,
for indigenous apo, for the indigenous people.
They have a federal task force for indigenous people,
for missing and murdered indigenous people.
And it's a good task force and it's a great thing.
So I'm sitting there on a federal level asking them,
when are you gonna do one for black women?
They said, we're not. And I said,
I came to this table because I had some ideas,
and I've been researching this for a long time,
and I had some good stuff to bring to you to add with you.
And I have life experience.
I came to this table to bring you some stuff
that you could use so we could stop this.
And then you tell me, ain't no table,
there's no table for us.
I'm a taxpayer, a voter, and an American.
How do you think that sits with me when you tell them,
when you tell me there's no table, there's no services,
there's no action for me about my dilemma.
Black women are only 12 to 13% of the population in the, in,
in, in the United States.
But we're 40% of the missing
and murdered and endangered women.
40%. A lot of this has to do with a lot
of things that we're not doing.
One of the things is media.
We've got to stop media portraying us in a dim light.
When they talk about our murders
and they talk about our missings,
and they're talking about how things happened when it comes
to crimes against us, they put a little twist on it.
Not sure if drugs were involved, uh, uh, in a,
in a neighborhood where this happens is if
our place had something to do, what happened to us?
Number number one, media has
to be educated on how to tell our stories.
Number two, we have to learn the police on how
to talk to us when they come to our homes.
And when we're talking about our missing kids, instead
of getting some constellation
or restitution, we get frustrated and angry,
and then they wanna lock us up.
Number three, as a community, we gotta stop playing
and come together and do what they used to do.
See, I came from a neighborhood that watched you
as you went down the street.
You, uh, it, it's, girl, let's dog out here.
Let me watch you while you go down the street.
Uh, let me carry your bag.
Well, we know they don't do that no more.
But you can start back.
Black men, where are you?
Why aren't you protecting us?
You used to protect our community. You used to protect us.
You wouldn't let nobody come into the community to harm us.
Now you are harming us. Stop it. Stop it.
Black women, we have to come together.
We are the backbone of the community.
Trust that without us, there'd be no community.
Women are not, the women are the doorway to life,
not the doormats.
And it's time that black men
and men all over our country started
respecting us in that manner.
'cause we don't get our respect.
And if the very men that look like us don't respect us,
how are we gonna get respect anywhere else?
I am on this task force
because I've lived this life
for 27 years.
I've been advocating for women and missing
and murdered women, especially just like you, pastor.
I've been in my community advocating, fighting,
changing laws in Springfield.
They used to call me the Senator Slayer.
I used to roll down there
because I care about my C community.
I care about my, my children and my black sisters.
And it has got to stop.
I'm on this task force because when I get down, I get down.
So they say, and you're saying, well,
it's gonna just gonna be another task force.
Now we Brenda Myers Powell on it.
Okay, we finna do something.
I don't know what it is, but we finna do something.
And with that said, thank you.
Thank you for letting me speak.
Thank you. Um, Brenda Myers Powell, um, we're going
to go back to Keana Butler from Cocoa.
Okay?
All right. Good morning everyone.
My name is Shakira Richards.
Again, I'm the Director of Program Administration
for the Working on Womanhood program at Youth Guidance.
We're a school-based counseling program.
We serve over 60 CPS schools in Chicago,
serving over 4,300 girls, um, students
who identify as girls
and women in the Chicago public schools.
And I am honored to speak on behalf
of youth guidance working on womanhood or WOW program.
I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to share
how our program programs upstream prevention strategies play
a vital role in addressing the issue of missing women
and girls, particularly within vulnerable c
communities, within our young people.
Youth Guidance's mission is to meet students where they are,
get guiding them towards brighter futures.
Through the wild program, we support young women
and girls who face significant challenges, providing them
with the tools and resources they need
to navigate complex situations, build resilience, and, uh,
and most importantly, to stay safe.
The reality of gender-based violence is deeply intertwined
with the issue of missing women and girls.
Many of the young women
who have become missing are at high risk due
to exposure from various forms of violence,
including intimate partner violence, relationship abuse,
and other forms of gender-based violence.
We cannot effectively address this issue without recognizing
and acting on those root causes.
The WOW program is built on the principal
of upstream prevention.
We work with girls in the schools
and community settings offering mental health support,
violence prevention, education,
and a safe space where they can express themselves,
share their experiences, and receive guidance.
Our approach focuses, focuses on helping these young women
understand and identify unhealthy behaviors,
build self-esteem, build language,
and develop strategies to navigate relationships safely.
Our program underwent rigorous evaluation by the University
of Chicago Ed Labs,
which found statistically significant reductions in PTSD,
trauma related distress, depression, and anxiety.
Among our wild participants, specifically,
PTSD symptoms were reduced by 22%.
Trauma related distress decreased by 38%.
Depression symptoms lessened by 14%,
and anxiety symptoms dropped by 9%.
These outcomes demonstrate how
targeted mental health support can help vulnerable young
women develop strength
and resilience to overcome their circumstances,
making it less likely
that they will become victims of violence.
Or go miss, go missing.
Our assessments show specific specific trends
that inform our prevention strategies.
For example, 16.3%
of Chicago wild participants
and 17.3% overall have been slapped, punched,
or beaten up by someone in their family, 18% in Chicago,
and 19.2% overall reported
being assaulted by someone outside of their family.
Alarmingly. Nearly 50%
of participants in the wild program in Chicago specifically
have witnessed violence in their households illustrating the
pervasiveness of exposure
to traumatic experiences from young ages.
These findings underscore the importance of intervention
and intervening early
before such patterns of violence escalate further,
potentially leading to situations
where young women may go missing.
In addition to our direct services,
we prioritize making referrals to specialized
agencies when needed through the support
of DFSS in the gender-based violence grant.
When a young woman in our program reports experiencing
intermittent partner violence
or other forms of abuse, we connect her
with appropriate support networks
that can pro provide safety planning, counseling,
and legal assistance.
Our aim is to create a comprehensive safety net so
that no young woman falls through the cracks,
and we meet them where they're at in the school.
By intervening early
and holistically, we aim to prevent the cycle
of violence from continuing.
We believe that through sustained efforts,
we can ensure these young women do not become
the missing women of tomorrow.
The work of this task force is a crucial step
to addressing the systemic issues
that allow gender-based based violence to persist.
As Youth at Youth Guidance, we are committed
to contributing our voice and expertise to this effort.
We support the formation of this work for missing
and women missing women
and girls, specifically missing women
and black girls, black women and girls.
Because it represents hope
for a coordinated community-wide response, we are eager
to collaborate, share insights,
and help identify GA gaps in the current support system.
We also know that addressing this issue must involve more
than reactive measures.
It requires proactive preventative strategies like those we
have implemented through the wild program.
And more than 60 schools in Chicago,
serving over 4,000 girls
and women in our program every year.
We believe in the power of upstream prevention.
And by equipping young women with knowledge, resources,
and support, they need to thrive.
We can help these circumstances that might lead them
to becoming at risk
or missing together with the support of you all,
we can build a safer, brighter future
for all our young women in our city.
And thank you, thank you so much for all of your efforts,
for your call to action and for your time and consideration,
and I look forward to furthering this critical discussion.
Thank you all.
Thank you. Thank you, Shakira.
And now we'll go to Kiana Butler. Uh,
Can y'all hear me? Mm-Hmm.
All right. Good morning. Good morning, y'all.
I, I, I apologize.
I was a little frustrated a little while ago.
I got anxiety
and I hate waiting, especially when I,
I feel like I'm supposed to be part
of a flow or something, you know?
So my anxiety, my nerves get to going up and down.
But, um, I wanna say this.
Um, I am, my name is Kiana Butler.
I work for Good Kids, mass City.
Um, I am their restorative justice, uh, instructor,
but outside of my role as an ex,
a restorative justice instructor, I am a black woman.
I'm a black woman that live in Chicago.
I'm a black woman that has a young black,
9-year-old daughter that I want to see protected.
At the end of the day. I am a survivor of domestic violence.
I am survivor of rape.
I am a survivor of so many different situations
that we have heard here today.
I am my in my own stories.
Um, I've been through my story, right?
Where I've sat in, um, these meetings asking that we be
prioritized as black women.
I hear so many, I hear so many women in here crying today,
or I hear their, their stories.
I hear their hearts. I hear where they are,
and I understand where they're coming from
because as a survivor of domestic violence, I went
through about about 10 years of it ongoing, off and on.
I've had broken ribs, broken knees, broken jawbones,
and every time that I've called CPD for help,
I was asked, what did I do wrong?
Where was, uh, where was I at when it happened?
Why didn't I leave? Instead of them coming straight
for me one time when I had a broken rib, it took CPD two
and a half hours to respond to my call.
Two and a half hours. I had to take myself to the hospital.
I went to work that day with broken ribs,
and my boss is the one that made me go to the hospital.
And that's the saddest part about it.
CPD never even showed up to my home.
And when they did, they called me.
Two and a half hours later,
I was already at the hospital helping myself.
And this is oftentimes so many black women story.
They have to help themselves when they get in these
situations, when they go missing,
nobody is looking for them.
Nobody is concerned about them.
Everybody is asking what is it that they did?
Why was they there? What did they have on, what tempted them
to make someone wanna do something to them?
What did they do? Instead of it being, what could we do
to stop this from even being a problem?
What can we do to prevent this from happening next time?
What can we do? And part of what we can do is a lot of
what was already said, good kids,
mad City has been marching alongside of Coco
and other organizations to, to, uh, to say her name, March,
I believe that's exactly what it's called, to, uh,
during the marches for the last five years, good kids,
mass City has been a part of that.
We want more things like this.
A part of our, of our, of, of the task force,
they have said this several times, we need a civilian, uh,
uh, liaison that's in the, that's from the city,
that's from our community, that's speaking on our behalf,
sitting in these task force.
Because if they are not,
how are y'all deciding on who gets help?
If y'all don't even know who needs the help,
y'all can sit there and say, oh, y'all need,
y'all don't need the help in that area.
Or y'all can say, oh, we've done something over there.
But the reality is,
it's more black women missing in this city than anything.
It is more black children in this city
missing than anything.
And our black kids don't have nobody
helping to look for them.
And a lot of times, what the reason that our black,
our young black girls are going missing,
and nobody's looking for 'em
because they categorize 'em as women.
They be 10 and 11.
And instead of using the word young, black girl is missing,
young girl is missing.
They say young black woman when she's 10, 11,
she's not a woman yet.
And it doesn't become a concern or a, or a priority
because they're calling them women instead of children.
Instead of saying, this is a young black
girl, she's missing.
They're saying, this is a young black woman,
which is confusing the story.
They don't do that when it's a heather missing.
And I don't wanna keep saying it like
that when it's a Heather missing.
Heather is a young, white American woman.
I mean, American girl that is missing a young white girl
that is missing a young white child is missing a one.
A white young child has been shot.
A young, a young black man who is only 14.
That's what they're calling him, a black man instead
of a black boy instead of a child.
That's why so many of us are still missing
because they categorize our kids as just adults.
So they're not even prioritized as children.
So they can't even be separate from the adult women
that are missing because they're being
categorized with women.
GKMC would like to see this task force
prioritize the needs of black women in this city.
I should not fear for my life
and my daughter's life when I simply walk her
to the school in the morning.
I have to walk her to school at
6 30, 7 o'clock in the morning.
We have to be at her school early in
order for me to get her there.
And then for me to get her back from school is dark
sometimes at 6 7 30.
So now she's, she's outside and we're outside
and we're not protected.
I fear that if I get hit upside my head
and somebody grab my baby,
nobody's going to look for my baby.
They're gonna think I abandoned my baby.
They're gonna think that I was just another pro,
another person who didn't care.
They're gonna think that, oh,
she was just another statistic.
She was just another nobody. We're not gonna look for her.
Like, we look for everybody else.
We're not gonna put the sand Karen to her.
I shouldn't fear that my daughter have to, can't walk
to school by herself,
and she only lives two blocks from the school.
I shouldn't be in fear that my baby is not gonna make it
home because of gun violence
or violence that has nothing to do with her
that she's not even involved in.
Again, I have a beautiful 9-year-old daughter.
I am a black woman living in Chicago. I wanna keep that.
And I wanna, I wanna just keep it there.
And I wanna say thank you all for being here,
and I really, I, I really hope that this is it
that we get heard this time,
because it shouldn't take this long
to be heard in the first place.
Thank you. Please add Alderwoman Silverstein
to the attendance roll call via remote.
Thank you Kiana.
Um, and now we'll go to Kayla Johnson from Coco. Um,
Okay, good morning.
My name is Kayla, and I'm a high school student
from the south side of Chicago.
First, I would like to thank all the members of,
of City Council for helping sponsoring this hearing.
And while working for the Kenwood Oakland Community
Organization, I became a part
of a campaign called We Walk For Her.
And through this campaign, I formed a sisterhood
with girls in my community.
And together we found that
we learned about statistics on missing black women
and girls, and looked into reports to see
how their cases were handled.
And we were very disappointed.
While reading through case reports, we found
that law enforcement often treated cases on missing black
women with significantly less care
than any other demographic.
Yet we have the highest rates of women going missing.
We wondered why are our cases looked at differently?
One of the major issues we saw was the stereotype,
the stereotyping of victims and their families.
Instead of being consoling, law enforcement often chooses
to neglect cases by giving false information about when you
can report someone is missing,
making assumptions about the whereabouts
of the victim without conducting an investigation
and taking extended periods of time to start
to start investigations
or give updates on ongoing ones she probably was out
with some boy should never be the first response
for when somebody is reported missing.
We are calling upon the city
to create an office separate from law enforcement
that focuses on missing black women and girls
and places like Minnesota.
This is already being addressed, so why not address it here?
They created the missing and murdered Black Women
and Girls Office in 2023 to end the systemic neglect
and violence that black women face.
This office is dedicated to supporting families
and communities, ensuring time, ensuring timely
investigations, fostering collaboration
with law enforcement,
and advocating for policies that promote justice inequality.
This had a major impact on the rates
that black women and girls go missing.
So the question I leave you
with today is why not implement this office in Chicago?
Thank you. Thank you, Paula.
And now we'll, uh, move to, uh, Trina Reynolds, Tyler
and Sarah Conway, um, from The Invisible Institute.
Awesome. Um, thank you so much for having us today.
It really is an honor to be here speaking with not only the,
uh, public safety committee,
but also the community
who has been invested in the issue for quite some time.
Sarah Conway and I, we teamed up to
look into the way Chicago police handle missing persons
cases, and, um,
and to see the ways that this pipeline
that is, you know, spoken about by Chicago Police,
what they've said in the public compares
with what families are saying.
Anecdotally,
We wanna thank all of the survivors
that are in the room today.
Um, we wanna thank Sonia Rouse's, little sister,
Bridget Rouse, who is here and,
and spoke on behalf of her family's experience.
We wanna speak thank Daisy Hayes's daughter Theresa Smith,
who came to speak about her mother's experience.
We spoke to both of these families in our investigation,
and, um, we're very grateful for you, despite how much pain
that you have been through because of neglect and racism.
Uh, our reporting analyzed over 343,000 missing person
reports from 2000 to 2021.
We interviewed more than 40 sources cross-referenced CPD,
missing persons data with homicide data,
medical examiner death data, and news reports.
Our investigation shines a light on how poor data collection
by police does not reflect the reality of
what happens when people go missing in Chicago.
It's important to note that we're,
we're not starting from scratch here.
We're really restarting the conversation that began
or that that occurred in 2017.
But we'll specifically speak about police misconduct,
police data keeping practices, procedures,
and a lack of oversight
that if addressed could actually save lives.
Um, in 2017, this committee called CPD Brass
to grill them on the racial disparities
in missing persons cases.
CPD officials reported their data reflected that in 99.9%
of juvenile missing persons cases,
the missing was located or returned.
That's not quite accurate.
See, we looked at the data from the same time period,
and we identified at least two juvenile cases
where police prematurely closed the missing persons case
before the the child was located.
And in both of those cases,
those young teenage girls were later found murdered.
In both of those missing persons cases, they are classified
as closed and non-criminal, which by date
of dictionary means incident not criminal in nature.
In their underlying documents, detectives noted
that the missing was located
and not a victim or offender of the crime.
Contrary to the truth, um, they are likely
two of many other cases where law enforcement,
because of this lack of oversight, um,
because of this, uh, rhetoric around missing persons
that people don't want to be found, um, uh,
are often overlooked.
I'd like to bring us to the case of Desiree Robinson.
She was 16 years old in 2016 when she ran away from home.
Shortly after, um, shortly
after she ran away, she went to a party
and a guy, he wouldn't let her leave.
She became, um, a traffic person.
Um, although she was being sex trafficked
by a guy named Joseph Ley,
law enforcement wrote in a report on December 20th,
that same year, you know, we spoke with the complainant,
complainant, the related, the missing had
returned, victim or offender.
No, but we spoke with Dennis Treadwell
and he told us, not only did she not return home,
but he wasn't contacted about police about her whereabouts.
Um, four days later on Christmas Eve, she was murdered.
Um, according to court records, during the time
that she was missing this Joseph Hasley character had taken
her on five to six dates each day.
Um, on that Christmas Eve, she was murdered by a man
who she refused to perform a sex act on
for free in a garage in Markham, Illinois.
Uh, while her sex trafficker, uh,
was asleep outside in the car.
Now the evidence of this practice goes as far back
as 2002, right?
The other case, next slide is of
17-year-old Shavana Prather.
In 2002, she was a Hyde Park Academy student.
She was pregnant at the time,
and she was last seen with, um,
the McDonald's manager, uh, at her job.
She court records show that she was murdered that night,
April 19th, 2002.
Um, but on April 24th,
a detective would be assigned to her case.
Two days later on April 26th, he closed her case.
He noted that he spoke with the complainant.
The missing had been located at a friend's house,
that she was not a victim or offender of a crime.
But a few hours later, her body was found.
It was covered in moss because it had been there for days.
There was no way that this young person had been found,
nor had this detective spoken with her mother.
Um, but the discrepancy went unnoticed.
See in these, oh, just two missing persons cases, as well
as other findings from our investigations, you'll be able
to see CPDs lack of oversight
and current data, uh,
keeping practices really create the conditions
for premature closure
because they're not really verifying
that a missing has returned.
Um, they're effectively hiding police neglect
and lack of superior, uh, supervisory accountability
for their investigative duties,
as we've seen in the Desiree and Shavanna case.
But then also the, the data just obscures the issue so much
that police and public officials ability
to get their hands on the issue, um, are,
are impacted, right?
We are not able to, in a meaningful way, draw connections
between people who have been missing and then were murdered.
Um, specifically this, and,
and it specifically impacts survivors of domestic violence.
See, this missing persons case is a precursor.
Often it's, although it is a non-criminal incident,
it is often a precursor for a much more serious event.
Um, it is a signal
and it is becomes a part of a cycle that is repeated, um,
a cycle that is, you know, fire is field
because of lack of access to treatment, which leads
to crime and exploitation.
Um, we, we, when doing this reporting wondered, you know,
what would've happened to Desiree Robinson?
Robinson, had she survived?
Would she have later just been treated as a criminal? Right?
Um, and how is it possible that the law enforcement, um,
who the person who was on her missing persons case, um,
was not held accountable for this premature closure?
Uh, next slide. We know
that there are racial disparities in cases,
and there's a misclassification of homicides
as closed non-criminal.
Um, the Illinois task force on missing
and murdered Chicago women convened
for the first time in May, 2023.
This state task force hope to rely on police data
to develop solutions
and understand what is driving missing persons cases,
including the final outcome of these cases.
If nearly 100% of the people reported missing were found,
we would not be having this conversation.
Still, it has proven extremely difficult to come
to definitive conclusions about missing this
because of how CPD closes missing persons cases in their
data between 2020 21, the Chicago Police Department claims
that nearly 100% of missing persons cases were closed.
Non-criminal police data from this time period identified
less than 300 missing persons cases that were reclassified
as a crime, and only 10 of those were homicides.
We, Trina of Invisible Institute
and myself at City B Bureau
identified an additional 11 cases that were ca categorized
as closed non-criminal,
despite homicide investigations being open for these cases,
this more than doubles the number of official homicides
and missing persons police data.
Each case offers insight into the underlying issues
that drive missing persons cases, but cannot be identified
because of data obscuration.
And I want y'all to take a look at
that stack bar chart right there, because
although, you know, although we're a little bit far away
here, that column is for black people, right?
And, and, and it is
so significantly higher than any other race here.
Um, um, it's, and,
and so that's not to say that other people do not matter,
because ultimately, every single person
who enters the missing persons, um, pipeline, um,
are negatively impacted by the way
that Chicago police are handling these cases.
But go ahead to the next slide I wanna talk about to Kayla.
Oh, and this is the elect 11 homicide cases.
Next slide, please. Um, next slide, please.
I wanna talk to you all about Tekay Tritt.
Um, she was 14 years old. She went missing in 2019.
People call her ladybug.
She spent a lot of time in a Dearborn Homes on a low end.
She was reported missing September 2nd, 2019,
and she, she had run away from a DCF group,
DCFS group home on the north side.
She was actually alive for about two weeks
before she was murdered.
She, 24 hours
after, um, running away from the DCFS group home,
she told her friend on Facebook like, you know, this guy,
he won't stop beating me.
Can you, can you get me the address to the DCFS group home?
I wanna go back. But she never, she never made it.
Um, she never made it back.
Um, she was found dead in Gary, Indiana.
Um, she was ultimately,
many people suspect trafficked.
Her body was found in a place that was known for sex work.
And her, although, you know, she was a Jane Doe
for some time, Chicago Police Department, were engaging
with the folks in Gary,
Indiana about her missing persons case and actually
provided some support in her case.
Her case is also categorized as closed,
not criminal within the data.
See, this inaccurate data makes it difficult for police
or public officials to fully understand
and effectively tackle the issue, right?
If data keeping practices did improve, then these cases
that are deeply connected to domestic violence,
substance use, abuse, human trafficking, could be tra,
could be tracked
and studied to understand these connections between crime
and exploitation, leading to, you know,
supporting preventative public safety solutions.
Um, next slide.
There's one thing that's clear in
CPD, missing persons data.
It's stark racial disparities.
Black people make up about two thirds
of all missing persons cases in Chicago
over the past two decades.
The majority of them are black children,
black girls in particular, between the ages of 10
and 20, make up about 30%
of all missing persons cases in the city, according
to police data, despite compromising just 2%
of the city's population as of 2020. When
We ask law enforcement, um, about, you know,
what was going on here, what the issue was, they said, well,
we investigate these cases equally across zip code,
across race, et cetera.
But they were actually missing, missing much
of their officer arrival time, um, impeding on their ability
to evaluate their own officers, um,
decision making and movements.
Um, police records, as you can see on the screen,
police records between 2017
and 2021 show, a little over 45% of the cases are missing.
This key data point around an officer just arriving,
um, to do the preliminary investigation, to send that case
to the missing person section to get that, um,
physical piece of paper because the document,
it's not digitized, document to the detectives so
that it can be assigned, often delaying, um,
delaying a case even further. And
Police records, they have enormous gap in DA data.
Um, but the data that police do not even attempt to gather,
um, is an issue.
Uh, numerous families told us
that they would routinely call police to get in touch
with information, but their calls went unanswered.
As of recent of April, 2024, the father of Morgan,
Morgan Farley, uh, said it took a detective nearly two weeks
to get in touch with him to notify him
that he was even assigned to the case.
Data on missing persons from the Chicago Police Department
makes it challenging
to really answer many questions about whether they're
providing services equitably and fairly across race
or zip code in the city.
And if we have massive gaps in as something as simple
as officer arrival time, we cannot measure
or definitively say whether police are responding equitably.
It's not possible. Um,
the paper-based incident form is just one aspect
of more significant issues of police delay
and inaction while handling missing person cases.
Next slide. So, I want us
to talk a little bit about the stages that
a case will go through, right?
It's like will the officer, the,
the officer is supposed to accept the report.
The detective is supposed to get in touch with the family,
supposed to take investigative action,
and ultimately, ideally close the case.
Well, when we spoke with families, they told us this thing
that this young cocoa person mentioned earlier,
that officers are dismissive of cases, you know, delaying
and denying a case, naming that there's maybe a 24 hour rule
that when someone runs away, you don't, you,
you're not able to make a report.
Um, but, and many of these families feel like their, their
services were denied because they were black.
I wanna call upon, you know, the, the case
of Shante Bohannon.
This is Tammy Pittman on the screen here.
When she went to report her daughter as missing officers in
that district told her, you know, maybe she's with,
you know, maybe she ran away, right?
Maybe, maybe she'll run away,
give it a little bit of more time.
Detective officers rather did not accept her case
until she came back the next day with a man.
So there are levels and layers to the ways
that gender-based violence shows up in these, um, in these,
um, cases at, in the form of discrimination, even, right?
Ms. Tammy Pittman was not able
to report her daughter is missing
until she had someone else come through for her.
Um, you know, we,
we also heard multiple cases where officers ref didn't, uh,
follow through on investigative leads, et cetera.
Um, and ultimately, you know, Ms.
Shante Boon's body was found naked in a garbage bag.
And, and her, her death has, is undetermined.
Although there are, uh, breadcrumbs of information connected
to Shante Bo's case,
although there is a pattern that many people have
identified, her case remains a cold one.
Go to the next slide, please.
I wanna call upon this, you know, coming back
to domestic violence, uh, because I wanna talk about Ms.
Sonya RA's case. And thank you again,
Bridget, for being here today.
Um, shortly
after Sonya had, um, her child,
she experienced postpartum depression.
She, um, was in an abusive relationship
with a guy who she was staying with.
And when her mother went to report her as missing, she, um,
she told detectives, this guy, she, I've gone here.
I've gotten my child from this house. He has harmed her.
Um, at the time, the guy she was last seen
with was technically an IDOC.
He was on a work release program.
Detective KY could have gotten.
Um, well, IDOC offered to bring y um,
the guy she was last seen with to Statesville
so that he could be interviewed.
Detective Ky said, you know what?
I'm gonna wait until he gets out of jail.
When this guy got outta jail, he was alive for a, a,
a year sitting on the couch,
and, um, in the same house where Sonya Rouse was last seen,
and he died of a suspected overdose, right?
Detective Ky had no idea that this guy had died and,
and had no idea
until Sonya Rouse's family called it to his attention.
The next year, um, all of the evidence related
to Sonya's case was able to be cleaned up
because this detective didn't do his due diligence.
When we looked at Detective Y's misconduct records,
we could see that he himself was a perpetrator
of violence against his wife and daughter.
So we wonder and ask to ourselves, what is the impact
of a detective who is a perpetrator of violence,
so within his own home, on the cases where we're
of survivors of domestic violence.
Uh, next slide. And we come to you,
the Public Safety Committee.
You're gathering here today to understand the issue
of missing women and girls in Chicago,
how this impacts black children, black people.
And there's space for you all to inquire into these issues.
There's really important questions that need to be asked
by a future city task force.
You need to ask regarding reporting and police negligence.
Will CPD follow suit with other major police departments
around the country and digitize its missing persons form,
which could ensure that data is collected in cases would
reach detectives more quickly?
What training needs to be in place
regarding reclassifying missing persons cases at crimes?
What screening or data collection needs to take place
to record what potential crimes
occur while a person was missing?
Of the 54 police complaint records related
to missing persons from 2011 to 2015 that we analyzed,
we found only one complaint was sustained.
This leads to the following question.
What can accountability look like for families?
What can it look like for police?
How can the public have more accessibility
to understanding their rights regarding
how police handle missing persons cases?
We can turn to a community investment.
I think it is a, it is a blessing.
If you look at this room today, Coco is here. Move is here.
Good kids, mad City. We have Ernestine daughters.
There's so many community members that are here,
there are youth here, there are impacted families
who took time off their jobs to come here to speak to you.
All community is in this room,
and community has been pushing this fight for years.
We wouldn't be here today
as journalists if they hadn't done that.
We're trying to play our role to share
that there are major issues with police data and oversight,
and it, it really falls on you all
as elected officials to do something.
We can ask for community investment.
What screening forms are needed to record potential crimes
that occurred while a person was missing,
particularly for minors?
And will you bring impacted families
and longstanding advocates to the table to create solutions
to improve police procedures
and policies related to missing persons?
And think about what future resources
and initiatives need to pick place in Chicago,
and how you're going to put impacted families at the table
to create those solutions on how
to improve police procedures
and policies related to missing persons. Mm-Hmm.
See, we, we, we really, coming back
to the premature closures pieces is really important here,
because according to police data, nearly a hundred percent
of cases are closed.
Non-criminal, right?
If, if, if that, that, that leads us to think, right?
These people have been found, um, when the lack of oversight
of supervisory accountability is playing a role here too.
You know, in 2020, there was a policy
that was introduced for missing person.
It was a missing person's policy
that said law enforcement must go to the location of,
of the missing, um, to confirm they have returned
and determine if the missing was located, um, um,
determine if the missing was considered at risk
or the victim or perpetrator of a crime.
Earlier this year, when,
when Morgan Farley's case was called to our attention,
we pulled the detective's records
who were on her case, Peter Cruz.
We saw that in 2023, detective Peter Cruz,
although there was a policy that said law enforcement was
supposed to come and, and,
and, you know, to confirm that they,
the missing has returned and
to determine if the missing the located person
was considered at risk.
We saw that Detective Peter Cruz, he, he does not,
he didn't follow this policy himself.
In, in the eight cases we pulled for young people,
we discovered we, he never went in person to verify
that the missing person had returned.
He just said, I ascertained through the complainant
that the missing was located not a victim
or offender of a crime.
What is policy without practice and oversight?
And, and that might sound like a small thing,
but when we go back to the cases of Desiree Robinson
and Shavana Prather police did not verify in
person that they had returned.
There's no way Shavana Prather was already dead.
She had been dead, been dead almost a week when a detective
said that she had come home alive.
When we think about Desiree Robinson,
she was being sex trafficked
and was murdered several days later.
So a policy like that, making sure
that it's actually happening,
that detectives are really going in person and verifying.
And you know, to reference Trina's point about Peter Cruz,
it's extremely important.
And when they tell lies on family members, right,
they shift the blame onto
the complainant, the family member.
Because in those reports, in those reports,
they're saying the, we spoke to the complainant, she said,
or they said the missing had return had been located
shifting the accountability away from law enforcement.
I just wanna say last thing, 'cause I know we're running on
time, but so many people have talked about Amber alerts
and there's a reason why black women
and girls are often not included in amber alerts.
And it's because in order for an Amber alert to occur,
there has to be proof that you are abducted.
But when the narrative is
that you just don't wanna be found when the narrative is
that you ran away, they're not going
to put out an amber alert for you. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much to Trina and to Sarah.
Um, we'll make sure that the, um, presentation is shared
after, um, today I'm moving on to, uh, Madeline Patti
On, can you hear me?
Perfect. My name is Madeline Patis.
I'm a senior policy advisor in the mayor's office.
Um, but transition from the role
of gender-based violence policy analyst.
Um, so this is obviously very, um, close
to my portfolio and my heart.
Um, first off, thank you so much to the advocates
and all the incredible work that has been done today, um,
years and years before we came today.
And with so much, um, thoughtfulness
and um, force behind it.
Um, I wanted to talk a bit about the mayor's office,
gender-based violence portfolio.
Um, specifically that we do have a gender-based violence
task force, um, that meets quarterly, um, that is made up
of representatives from all over Chicago,
looking specifically at gender-based violence topics.
And then I liaise specifically with the, um,
survivor led working group, which is a group made up
of particularly survivors of gender-based violence.
So in the Johnson administration, we really want
to center the lived experience of folks
who have the direct experience of these topics
and maintaining those constant communication with survivors,
um, throughout all of our policy making.
So with that, um, I will hand it back to Yumi. Thanks.
Thank you. Um, we'll turn it over
to Chelsea Whittington from the Chicago Urban League.
Good afternoon everyone,
and thank you so much for this opportunity.
I am here representing the Chicago Urban League, uh,
to Chairman Hopkins, to Alder Woman Coleman
and Alder woman Taylor to Ms.
Frisbee and the policy team of Mayor Brandon Johnson.
And I'm very pleased to present the testimony on behalf
of our president and CEO Karen Freeman Wilson
and the entire Chicago Urban League team.
We know these to be critical issues
that face black women in our community,
and I would just personally like
to acknowledge the individuals who have spoken previously,
uh, sharing data, sharing personal testimonies and stories.
And the Chicago Urban League stands in the
gap as a convener.
And so the remarks I will share on behalf
of our president speak to
how we will insert ourselves in the narrative
and how we are here in the role of support.
We also want to commend Dorothy Tucker
and her colleagues at CBS Chicago, Trina Reynolds, Tyler
and Sarah Conway from the Invisible Institute
and City Bureau for shining a light on another way
that equity evades black women and girls.
We have seen the news coverage about the women
who have gone missing
and who have been victimized at the hands of others.
We'll hear about the lies of Shaya Smith, Sonya Rouse,
Naya Williams, Sierra Jameson, and the list goes on
and on with each woman.
The fear, the violence, and the trauma is palpable.
Equally concerning is the failure
to hold responsible parties accountable.
The inability to solve these crimes is attributable
to the lack of reliability, reliable community information,
often stemming from mistrust, the failure of follow up
by police in the absence of outcry about the lives
of these women as as it has been stated earlier today,
Malcolm X stated
that the black woman is the most disrespected
person in America.
We see that phenomenon every day,
and it is time that leaders elected community-based clergy,
corporate, and others join together with solutions.
The Chicago Urban League would like
to focus our testimony on two issues that provide a key
to addressing this pertinent issue in our community.
Raising public awareness about these disconcerting issues
can have a significant impact.
Many people were not aware of the fate
of missing black women
and girls until they read the report from the
Invisible Institute.
Others were not aware about black women over-indexing
as crime victims until they saw the coverage on CBS.
At the same time, there are individuals
who are still not aware of how much
of a problem we face in this area.
By raising awareness, we are able to encourage all involved
to be engaged in cooperative problem solving
community coalitions to encourage cooperation with police.
Es es police investigations, heightened community response
that expedites civilian search efforts
and the development of media
and information allies to underscore the pervasive nature
of violence against black women.
This is a subject that would lend itself to campaigns
of conducted by sports teams, influencers,
performing artists, members of the faith community,
and elected officials like those of you
who have already prioritized these concerns.
The second solution we would highlight is the importance of
focusing preventive efforts on women
and girls of all ages, women of faith, sororities,
civic groups, and other women's advocacies should make this
an urgent policy
and advocacy issue
by highlighting this discussion in all of their forums.
Part of prevention also involves self-defense training,
awareness of surroundings, routine safety practices,
and other me measures contemplated to reduce the risk
of being victimized.
While nothing is totally preventable,
we have a long distance between the inordinate incidents
of violence and ensuring everyone's safety.
In closing, we want to emphasize
that the Chicago Urban League is a willing partner in the
fight to solve the distinct issues of missing women
and girls and the overall representation of black women
as victims of crime.
In April, 2024, we hosted a Black Women's Health Summit
where we outlined the data outlined by Ms. Tucker
and offered a series of solutions.
We also stand ready as a community convener
to assist in developing community centered solutions.
In fact, at the start of this meeting,
the alderman greeted alderwoman greeted me
and let us know that they are prepared
to take this show on the road.
Very often we are faced with solutions
that require new laws and guidelines.
The laws are already on the books.
What we need to do now is resolve, resolve the commitment
of all involved to treat these issues
with the urgency they deserve.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Um, we will turn it over to, uh, rabbi,
um, sorry, Michael Benef.
Cammi. Well, I begin, I want
to just give acknowledgement to these families
with the courage and strength that you displayed today.
It was inspiring and heartfelt,
and I stand with you in solidarity.
Greetings to the members of the Council
to f Fellow Chicagoans.
My name is Rabbi Michael ign,
human rights activist here in Chicago, an advocate
for missing person and unsolved murders of black women
murdered by Chicago serial killer.
Since 20 0 8 18, there is a serial killer in our community,
and I said that right there at that mic
when Mayor Lightfoot was on the mayor.
What are the signs of a serial killer body burned,
thrown into the garbage can?
Technology the victim's chosen are from the south side
and west side of Chicago.
To learn more about this, please look at our website
that's dedicated to the unsolved murders of these cases,
www.whokilledourgirls.com.
And it is an honor and a privilege to come here
and to this chamber and to my peers to add
to this conversation to help bring about
much needed change in our city.
That change is to address the ongoing problem
of black women becoming missing person in Chicago.
As an activist, I work with many families in many areas
of concern, even families of missing person.
I work with the families
of the missing person like Kyra Coles family,
the postal worker who had been missing since October
20 0 18.
I also work with the family of Diamond Byron
and King Walker, who was missing in Gary,
Indiana since 2015.
I work with the family of Jessica Laws
who vanished without a trace in August, 2015,
even in Bradley's sisters who've been missing for 23 years.
What does these statistics tells us of
how serious this problem is that black women are in danger
according to the FBI.
Black girls and women are 15% of US female population.
In the year twenty twenty, two hundred and sixty 8,000
black girls and women were reported missing.
Please keep in mind that this statistic
was given four years ago.
We can only imagine as to how many more black women
have gone missing lead up to this year.
This is a staggering
and unthinkable fact to behold, as I say, stated in 2020
268,000 black girls
and women were missing that make up 15%
of the US female population.
Out of that total 90,000 were black women.
That's 34% who are missing here in our own Cook County.
Five months ago, the Cook County Sheriff Office reported
that there were over 1,663 people
missing in our own county.
That's one county of those missing were
762 men.
Women of that total 512 were black women
making up 67% of those cases.
A few years ago, my team
and I began to track
what was reported in the news about black women missing
because it became more frequent
in six month period from August 31st, 2022
to February 22nd, 2023 16.
Black women were missing in just six months on the west side
and the south side of Chicago.
Please think, keep in mind these are cases reported,
but what about those that are not reported makes this
problem even more dangerous
and heartbreaking was all this data telling us,
it's telling us that a comprehensive plan
was needed yesterday.
It tells us that black women are in danger.
It tells us that any one of us in this room are not exempt
for this reality, for that door to be knocked upon.
And as you go through this pain that these families go
through, what do I do?
I visit crime scenes.
I go on podcasts to tell about these stories.
I've intended to this city council meeting here
to address Mayor Lightfoot
to address the former Superintendent Johnson that said,
emphatically there is not serial killer in our community.
But in fact, these families are here to bear witness
that they're going through this pain
and they can tell that superintendent he is wrong.
What changes need to be made.
Yes, we do have the inter-government, uh,
gosh, Went past here.
We do have the Intergovernmental Missing Child Recovery Act
of 1984 that relates this cases surrounding in six crimes
that now mandate profiles for predators.
And to advocate for victims of missing person.
We do need an official office.
As we heard today, many times,
an office dedicated to a missing person.
This office must be the,
and needs to be led by elected official
by their peers to bring about advocacy transparency
and to serve as an outlet for these families.
What needs to happen is
that the thousands abandoned buildings in Chicago needs
to be entered immediately without delay.
Possibly these abandoned buildings can bring closure
to these families who are still grieving
and missing their loved one.
When black girls and women are missing.
There's very little coverage.
However, when a victim is of another race is given missing,
we see every bit of all hands on deck
for those individuals.
We applaud those resources, but
however, our community deserves just as much
as equal service.
What is needing, what does the reform look like?
The Chicago Police Department needs to increase
or update the outdated entry system
that modernizes a digital system that put into information.
That information immediately every second that goes
by is critical to finding a missing person.
Chicago police needs to be linked together
with a national missing
and under-identified person, system known as NamUs,
a publicly accessible database when the cases
of missing person occurs.
As I close, thank you for this opportunity
to share my thoughts
and ideas on a problem that continues to get worse.
As I always say, actions with families,
even talk to the media.
If you know something, say something.
May all our families
that suffer from this find their loved ones
may become home safe.
May those who remain missing still,
may they return, come home.
May they return into the to the families.
This is my hope and this is my prayer. Thank you. God bless.
Thank you Rabbi. And now we'll have,
we'll hear from Lavinia
Hood, from Move.
Thank you.
Mothers of opposed to violence.
Can you hear me? Everybody? Thank you.
Mothers of opposed to violence everywhere is an organization
who have been mentoring young girls for many years.
Now, while we mentor with these young girls until they got
to ages like 11 or 12, and
and even, uh, in the eighth grade, they came to us
and let us know that individuals, mens was trying to
kidnap them in vans.
Okay? So what we did, our organization, a group of womens,
we had to get out there
and monitor while the students was traveling to
and from school to keep them safe.
Okay? After this happened, Shia
Smith and her mother, Latonya Moore, was members
of Move sh Smith was murdered,
beaten to death, and by they thrown in an abandoned garage
with a car on top of her.
As we went on with that Aria Davis, 16 years old,
she was beaten and murdered
and left in an abandoned building.
I said that to you all because this is very, very dangerous.
And it's extremely important.
Black and brown communities suffered the most from missing
person cases, yet have the least amount of resources
invested, including high profile cases,
investigation tactics,
and the least amount of community alerts and media coverage.
And here is what we are asking of you all.
We want the creation
of an office here in Chicago are the state of Illinois.
And we want that office to be completely dedicated
to the work of missing black and brown person cases.
I don't think that that's too much to ask of you all
after all of these years of working hard,
standing on the, the, the corners when kids traveling
to school, getting outta our beds at night, making sure
that they're safe, making sure
that they're traveling in groups of twos and threes.
We lost a lot of, she sleep, uh,
Santer Davis and her mother would not let me
or Reverend Hood sleep day or night.
Our phones rain till 12 midnight in the morning.
We got no rest, none whatsoever.
And we feel seriously that it's not asking too much
for you all to establish an office here in the city
of Chicago or the state of Illinois
that will be dedicated completely to black
and brown, missing women and girls.
That's how we feeling. And we are serious about this.
And I wanna thank you all for your ears
and everybody else of you that's in here, we are sick
and tired of being sick and tired of these women
and girls coming up missing.
And boys, we're tired of it. We need your help. Bad.
We desperately need you to help us
'cause we're getting tired, but we are not gonna stop.
This is why move decided five
and a half years ago to do a documentary
on the Chicago Strangler.
Or shall I say, strangle us.
'cause I believe that there are many of 'em out there.
So we need to nip this in the butt
and save our childrens now and the generations to come.
You, you, you and you are getting old as we are.
We need your help. And we are serious.
I'm angry, I'm sad.
I'm hurting on the inside, but I ain't gonna die.
And move is not going to quit.
We will continue to do the work that we are doing
until we get an office here.
We need it. Thank you so much.
Once again, thank each and every last one of you.
Thank you. I would now like
to request Commander Jarret Smith from CPD,
Uh, commander Jarret Smith, uh, uh, youth Investigations,
part of the, uh, bureau of Detectives.
Um, oh no, thank you for the,
so, uh, what I want to start with, uh, the first,
I'm not gonna read every slide to you.
Can we go to the next one, please? Uh, that's really small.
So I am gonna read this, uh,
because what I want to emphasize on that slide is, uh,
you know, our vision that all the Chicagoans are, are safe,
supported and probably the Chicago Police Department,
let's have this one.
Oh, that's so much better. You all like saving, thank you.
Uh, but with the emphasis on our values, I think
that's where we want to go to next.
Uh, 'cause our values,
because that's what, that's what we're talking about here.
What are our values? And, and I'll tell you just,
and I'm gonna get personal here at the
beginning and then at the end.
'cause I'll tell you a personal missing person story, uh,
but professionalism, uh, you can say many things about me.
But one thing you'll always say is that I'm professional
and I believe that our detectives
and police officers have to be professional.
And that is a, and I hear when people say that,
that the treatment that they get,
and it's not right, it's not professional.
And that's one of the things that we take very seriously.
And it's gonna be kind of addressed in,
in the later slides about what are the changes
that we are making in the police
department in regards to this.
And it's not just in regards to this,
but it's in regards to everything that I'm responsible for.
But this is what we're talking about now.
There's professionalism and the dedication
and the respect that everybody deserves.
Everyone deserves that respect. Okay.
And so, uh, can we go to the next slide?
Um, oh, that might be outta order.
Prompt response. Yeah.
Okay.
So let's talk about the policy.
So our policy says
that we're gonna have a prompt response when there's a
missing person's report that needs to be made.
We have to, we have to uphold that.
And the other thing we have to emphasize is there's kind
of a common belief that, uh, you have to be missing
for some amount of time
before we'll accept a missing person's report.
That is not true. That changed years and years ago.
And one of the speakers said
before that, um, uh, they ended up having to talk
to a supervisor and a supervisors supervisor.
And I, and I tell people,
and I used to be, uh, in the previous lifetime,
I was a caps, uh, sergeant.
And I would tell people that, well, that is what you have
to do when people don't want to do their jobs.
And this is their job. And I'm telling you right now,
that's their job to take a missing person's report.
And if they don't want to take that report,
you get a supervisor because that report should be made.
Okay? We take the reports, that's our job.
We do the report, and then we investigate it.
They do not have to be missing for 24 hours.
Now there are, uh, next slide, please.
Okay. Oh, okay. Thank you.
How about now? Okay, well,
I'm sorry you missed what I said.
It was great. Um, let's see. Uh, where were we?
Oh, okay. So that's, uh,
I'm gonna just go over fast over a couple of these slides
because I think the most important thing is gonna be
what are we doing now?
Because, you know, I was raised in a church
and faith without works are dead.
So what is the police department doing?
What changes have we made? What improvements have we made?
Okay, so I'm gonna go to, I'm gonna skip ahead to,
there's a slide that says missing persons resources.
So that one right there.
So that's one of the big changes that we've made.
Uh, I'm gonna, I gotta go really out of order.
'cause what I wanna do is be respectful of everyone who's,
who's spoken here today, and kind
of address some of the concerns.
So I'm going off script. Okay?
So what we're gonna talk about is, one of the common things
that I've heard is the automation
of a missing person's report.
That's done. We've done that already.
And so what that'll do is speed up
the dissemination of those reports.
That's done. It was one of the last reports
that needed a signature.
And we weren't even sure why it fell into the category
of things that we did, because we always did them.
And one of the things that I was like, well,
we shouldn't do things just
because that's what we did before.
We have to look at what makes the most sense
and automated made the most sense.
And so it is, it's automated now. Okay?
And then one of the other changes that we made is this, uh,
missing person information notice.
So now when you get the missing person's report, uh,
and these are all publicly available now, uh,
when you get the missing persons report, you have a notice
which has this information on there.
And it's got the, uh, one 800, the lost number.
It's got the National runaway Safe line.
Uh, it's got Illinois State Police
Clearinghouse for Missing Persons.
This is all information that we're giving to the victims of,
uh, I'm sorry, the complainants in
these missing person cases.
It also has information on human trafficking, uh, support
for victims and families.
Uh, this is, this is something that we're giving
because we're not just taking a report.
We have, we have to kind of change the way
that we treated missing persons, which included giving help.
Sometimes what these people need, what these families need,
especially when you're talking about juveniles,
is they need, they need some help.
So the police department, if we're in a position to do
that, then we can.
So that's one of the things we did.
Uh, and that's also part of our, what we've done to
strengthen the preliminary investigations
of these missing person cases.
Um, which is one of the things when we, uh, we just, uh,
the order has been revised.
Uh, and one of the things that is in the order is, like one
of the speakers said before, is actually, uh, making sure
that that's ver, that the return has been verified.
So in high risk cases, that is a thing.
Uh, the, the, that's gonna be in the report, but there are,
but we have to make sure that that data is collected.
So that's a down the line thing that we're doing, is we have
to change the way that we do our data also.
Uh, so I think that'll, yeah.
So now I'm back on script.
So, uh, so then, so we were talking about strengthening
and preliminary investigations,
and then we're also talking about the fel,
the follow-up investigations.
That's where you get your
detectives who are gonna be assigned.
And the automate the, the automation of the report,
like I talked about before, it makes that a faster process.
Now you're not getting the delay from when the report is
actually done, a paper report when that goes to review.
And then that report comes into the, uh, office.
The, we're getting these, the detectives,
which we're getting them right away,
but they're, we're gonna be getting more information right
away because you weren't getting all of the, the,
the most pertinent information right away,
because you have to wait for a paper report.
Now it's automated everything.
And with the stronger preliminary investigation
and an automated report,
that Detective has more information right up front
when they start the investigation
of admitting of missing persons.
So, uh, now all that's gonna do is,
is make the investigations better.
Um, uh, and as far as the, uh,
and when a person is returned, uh, the detective,
it is their responsibility to find out
what did happen to that person.
Uh, they are, they are supposed to scream
what happened to you while you were gone.
Uh, but when now that we're going to automation,
we'll be able to make sure that
that stuff is actually filled out.
Uh, because a lot of the information is caught in narratives
of reports, but those aren't easily searchable.
We understand that there were some data problems
that we're actually making moves to kind of, uh, incr
to enhance our missing persons investigations.
If we could go up to, there's a, there's a steps
to enhance missing persons investigations.
Uh, the next one. So, uh, the one,
the, the big thing that we've already done is the automating
of the missing persons report.
We believe that this is gonna be a game changer as far
as the reporting and,
and advancing these investigations goes.
Uh, we published The Missing Persons in, uh,
the Incident Notice,
and that's in five languages, I believe.
Uh, that's the, uh, notice that I, uh,
talked to you about earlier.
Uh, we also are making a,
uh, I'm sorry, it's already created.
We have a guide, like I talked about.
We have to strengthen the preliminary investigations,
those beat officers, whoever is doing,
who's taking that initial report.
We need all that information, the best information.
So we're having this guide that's gonna be available, that,
that's Best Practices, the National Best Practices
of Information that you get at the front end
of an investigation.
So that's, we have that guide.
And so that's gonna be available. So if you're making a
missing Person's report, these are, these are the things
that we need to know that Let, let's get
that information upfront to make
these investigations stronger.
Uh, we're also regular attendees
and the participation in the missing
and, uh, murder Women Task Force
meetings that we have regularly.
I think there was one yesterday that I had to miss, uh,
but I'm a regular attendee to that meeting.
And we're also liaising with the Medical examiner's office.
And, uh, just recently they had stopped it, uh, for Covid.
But, uh, just recently, uh, well, uh,
before the summer we had the, uh,
medical Examiner's Missing Persons Day,
and there were representatives from NamUs there.
And, uh, we were talking about Cold Case, missings
and kind of, uh, because the other thing that we realize
that we have to do, and it's,
and it's not just as far as these investigations,
but just the way government works is get out of silos.
So you have these other people who are doing things well.
We, we, everybody who has skin in the game,
and we all do, we all need to be talking.
And so the mid, uh, the medical Examiner's office,
missing Person's Day was an example
of us going outside of our silo.
Hey, what are you guys doing? What are best practices?
Because we have to be cognizant of what best practice,
what best practices are,
because these are, this, these investigations are important
to the Chicago Police Department.
Uh, next slide please. And so, what are the next steps?
So, uh, we realize that these investigations, that,
and the way they're conducted,
we're gonna be doing refreshers and, and e-learnings and,
and making sure that our practices are up to date.
I mean, that's the thing that we have
to regularly do anyway.
Uh, so we're gonna make sure that that's up to date.
Uh, also, what's, what's planned
and is the hiring
of investigative analysts that'll be assigned to each
of the, uh, five areas, uh, areas 1, 2, 3, 4, and five.
Who do the, uh, whose SVU offices handle the missing persons
investigations to assist with the, uh, with the, uh,
with older Missing Persons investigations?
Uh, uh, because we already have the high,
the detectives are assigned right away
with the high risk investigations.
But what about the ones who have been missing,
you know, for a long time?
We have to make sure that those cases don't just fall off.
So we're, we want to have these, uh, investigative analysts,
we're gonna make sure that,
that we're following up on those.
Um, and, uh, the other thing that,
that we were talking about in partnership with DFSS
and these, these talks have really just gotten off the
ground, is we have the partnership with them as far
as the Youth Intervention Pathways program, uh,
with service providers.
And one of the things that we were looking at modeling
is when we have, we talk about the juveniles who run away.
Uh, you talk about the ones
who have run away more than once, more than a few times.
We want to connect the families.
We want to attempt to connect these families with services
as opposed to just closing a missing persons case,
because we have to acknowledge
that there's something going on there.
And so we're in a position, like I said
before, if we're in a position to help, then we should help.
And so that's, uh, that's the, some
of the things that are on the horizon.
And the other thing that's on the horizon is,
uh, is a data thing.
Uh, because the missing persons, when it's created
as a missing person's case, it's a non-criminal case.
Being missing is a, is a non-criminal case.
And so when we close it, that's why it's closed.
Non-criminal. And so it looks like that's, we are saying
that no crime has occurred,
but that case, which was open
as a non-criminal case is closed.
So, so now what we have to do in order
to track our data better is change our classifications.
And so that's what we're working on now. Uh, changing.
We have to change what the categories are as far as, as far
as when we're closing it, when is it reclassified?
We we're gonna be separating out, uh, if a person is located
or returned, uh, we're gonna make sure that the reports, uh,
it can't just be in the narrative,
but there's another report that's, uh, created.
Uh, with it being automated, we're gonna be able to say,
okay, we'll put in that report number.
If you're saying that there's another incident
that this is associated with, we have
to be able to associate that.
Uh, but that's a data thing, and that's way above my head.
But it is a process that we have acknowledged
and that we are working on.
And, uh, I think that's about it for me.
Uh, so, oh, I'm sorry. There's one other thing.
We have a, uh, a palm card, uh, that we're gonna,
that's gonna be associated with missing persons.
That's, uh, we have it right now.
It's, it's a palm card for the police officers,
but we're looking at making it, uh, a part of the, uh,
FOP guide that each police officer gets.
So it's, it's a resource that's gonna be ready, avail,
readily available to everyone as part of our, our process
of strengthening these preliminary investigations.
Um, and so I think that's the last slide for me.
That's it. Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much, commander.
Um, we have come to the end of our presentation.
Thank you all. Um,
and I'll turn it over to Alder Woman, uh, Taylor.
So there are definitely a number of questions
that need to be asked.
I'm gonna turn that part over to, um, alderman Hopkins.
But my first thing is to say thank you to everybody
who came today and presented.
Um, it is been a long day.
We've been here since nine 30,
but this is a long conversation that's been overdue.
So I want to say you say thank you to everybody who stayed
and who is still here.
Um, my first couple of questions are to, um,
the Invisible Institute and CPD.
Um, how many unsolved cases does CCB CCB CPD have today?
And if the Invisible Institute has a number
that they can give up as well?
Do you wanna start? Officer? I'm commander
Information to the chair.
I don't have the number of open cases readily available.
So the last time we received data from,
from CPD was in August.
And when they gave it to us,
they gave us the cases from 2020 to August of 2024.
At that time, I'm sorry, I'm just running the data.
Um, at that status located close, at that time,
um, there were 557 cases which remain open assigned,
and one un open unassigned,
78 were suspended.
And that is from 2020 cases, which were open from 2020
to August of 2024.
Just a little disheartening to to hear that CPD
did not come with a number.
Like we, I, I, I can't understand that.
Like we are having a,
and this is not a new conversation, this is not anything
that I have not been talking to the superintendent about.
And so we don't have a ballpark number.
We don't have a year to year, we don't have any
of those numbers to say.
'cause that's important.
And why it's important is it pushes us to know
that while this is already a travesty,
those numbers are important for us to give to folks who come
to say, and she said between 2020
and 2024, you said 557?
Yes, ma'am. And there were 40,000, um, incidents. And
That's just a little over.
And what does, can you tell, explain to me,
and I should be asking him,
but I'm gonna ask you, what does incident mean? So
When a person is reported missing, for every individual
who is reported missing,
for every individual there is an RD number.
Um, and that is like an incident, right?
And so even if there is, like in an event,
two people are reported missing, both
of those individuals will get an RD number, um,
and then that RD number go, you know, the BEAT officer
generates that RD number with OEMC,
they send it to missing person section.
Um, I'm sorry,
I feel like I answered your question, but I rambled a bit.
So it's, it's, it's like the, uh, an RD number is the case
of a missing individual.
This question is also for, for both, if you can answer,
is there a database or a dashboard when it comes
to missing women?
Uh, so in the city of Chicago, there is no database
or dashboard for missing, missing people.
You know, some cities have done a great Montana and men
and Washington DC um, have both have DS dashboards, um,
after they did some digging into the, the,
their missing persons pipeline.
Um, but it would be crucial in the future
for missing persons cases, as there were a number of people
who we spoke with who learned by way of our conversation
that their loved ones case had been suspended.
Um, or also learned
that their loved one's case was prematurely closed.
We spoke to the Washington DC police Department,
and they have a dashboard for their city, uh, the district,
um, where they put out missing persons data
so the public can better understand like,
what exactly does this look like?
So there's definitely precedent of that happening.
And it's possible.
This question is to CPD.
How many detectives do you currently have working on?
Missing person?
The, uh, the number of detectives assigned
to missing persons cases gonna, are gonna vary
because they're assigned throughout the SVU offices.
So we'd have to contact each office
and find out how many detectives they have assigned doing
missing persons, uh, areas one through five,
their SVU offices.
You said five Five, the five areas.
Oh, so is there somebody in every police district
or there just five detectives that,
So there are five. So there are five
detective division areas
in all the missing persons are assigned
to detectives in each one of the areas.
Currently does CPD um, work with the state
and FBI crime labs or unsolved
or missing person cases?
So one of the things that, uh, they have to do, uh, with,
uh, cases that have been a little older is get the
information entered into the, uh, NAM system.
So that's, uh, one of the, um, some of the criminal,
I'm sorry, the, uh, missing persons database.
And so they do those kind of partnerships, uh, with
and with, uh, older cases.
They also, there is some FBI, but they do the same thing.
It's all kind of the, the data with that.
And, and if the, if you suspect that a, uh,
missing persons has cross line, that you may go with the FBI
and liaison so that there's a liaison that kind of works
with FBI offices
and we're, we're trying to, at this point, trying
to strengthen that relationship with all the areas, uh,
to make sure that, that everyone knows that that's a thing
that's available to them.
I would like to just quickly note if possible, just
because NamUs came up.
One of the premature closure cases we identified was the
case of Lindsay Franklin Murray.
She, her, she went missing.
Um, 2011, she died at a bus stop of a heart attack on 24,
uh, 2013, about a year later,
Chicago police detective wrote a report saying the missing
had been located and was not a victim of a crime.
Um, she was a Jane Doe in the morgue at the time
because her daughter attended a missing persons stay
with the Cook County Sheriff's and the medical examiners.
He mentioned this missing Persons day earlier.
Her daughter gave DNA and
because of her daughter giving DNA, she went
and, um, her, her case was added
to NamUs in the Chicago police data.
If you look at her underlying documents, it, it says
that she was found, she had not been Commander Jason Moran
with the Cook County Sheriff's Missing Person project.
When he was digging into Lindsay's case, he, he discovered
that, um, Lindsay's case was prematurely closed.
Um, um,
and even the, you know, he knew that she had not been found,
he was able to match her DNA
and re uh, reunite her daughter with her missing loved one.
But I just wanna make sure to be, to demonstrate the kind of
distance that can exist between the NamUs database,
especially when we're not, um,
actively inputting in those cases
and to NamUs on a regular, um, regular basis
and doing our due diligence.
So what I'm getting is we don't have
a really resource problem.
We got a common sense problem.
'cause we ain't got the common sense to work past county,
state and federal government to work together to figure out
where these missing women went.
You, you, you, you don't have to answer.
I'm, I'm just saying, can you, um,
the gentleman from CPD, we have people
who are watching this live.
Explain to me what happens when I pick up the phone
and I call and say, my child is missing.
Tell me what, what does policy, what is supposed to happen
from start to finish?
So you called
and say that your child is missing,
police officers should come out to your house
and make that report, get the information.
Uh, when was your child last missing?
When did you last see him?
Did you have, uh, do you have a clothing description?
Uh, information like that.
We get whatever the case is,
whatever the information is on that case.
If, if, if there are circumstances
that would make it a high risk case, then they're gonna, uh,
more of the patrol is gonna get involved.
You're gonna have to do, um, they're gonna have to get, uh,
more officers involved in that.
And then the detective division is gonna get involved.
They have to do a report every day.
It, it all kind of depends on
what other particular circumstances with your missing child,
What makes it a high risk case.
Okay. So a high risk case is a case if, um,
so I'm gonna go right to the policy on our,
our at at-risk youth.
Uh,
one,
sorry, I had a highlighted on another one.
No. So, uh,
an at-risk youth is gonna be someone we're talking
about a young child.
We're talking about someone who's got, uh,
we're talking about, uh,
like a a a small child who wanders out of the house.
Um, can
You tell me what that age is?
So this is someone who's gonna be,
I'm gonna get the exact age for you.
I'm sorry.
Tender age zero to nine.
I wanted to say nine, but I didn't wanna misspeak. It's
Okay. Yeah, But
can you say it
Again? Tender age
child. A tender age is usually zero to nine.
Sometimes it goes to 10. I'm not sure where.
Yeah, but that would, it would depend on the
circumstances, but it's always gonna be
that if it's nine and under.
But there are gonna be other circumstances, uh, like I said,
with a, a kid with a learning disability, then you,
you're going to, you, you have to kind of know that
you gotta go another step further with those kind of cases.
Absolutely. For example, in the case
of Morgan Farley there, she, in the year, this year, April,
she was reported missing her father,
um, reported her as missing.
She had a mental health, she was a mental health crisis.
She had a history of depression.
Um, when Morgan Foley's father went to report her
as missing, it was obvious
that she's a high risk given her mental health crises,
that detective did not get in touch with Morgan's father
for nearly two weeks.
Um, and they were getting leads along the way
and they were calling the district.
You know, they were calling the department trying
to get in touch with this detective.
The detective did not even let them know he
had been assigned to the case.
And at risk could be a disability,
it could be if you're a senior citizen experiencing
dementia, it could be if you're a tender aged child.
I, one thing to add
that came up in our research while doing the series is
that we did notice, um, a pattern of young black girls
who had bipolar disorder, had depression,
had other underlying mental illness, which is a disability,
which would categorize someone as high risk.
And there is definitely a correlation
between young people trauma in this city, specifically PTSD,
depression, bipolar disorder, and missing risk.
Um, you know, that is put someone at higher risk
for exploitation and violence.
And those things are, that,
those things should be absolutely noted, uh,
because they go on the missing person's flyer.
Uh, we have a website
and that, that kind of information is on there.
Uh, like the cases are talking about the, uh, people with,
uh, dementia or Alzheimer's.
So people who will wander off.
We put that information on there
because that, that is pertinent information, uh, as to why
that person is high risk.
And those are the things that'll get, uh, those are the,
the ones that get blasted out in the news feeds.
Like even on my phone, I have a Google newsfeed.
And periodically a uh, high risk missing case comes up
because the Chicago Police Department
has, has put that information out there.
There seems to need some more to be some work in CPD.
When I could ask the Indivisi, the Invisible Institute
a question that's designed for you,
and y'all don't have the answer, we, we got a real problem.
And so for me, unless my child is high risk
or under the age of nine, they're not a priority,
is what it seems like to me.
And we know a lot of times when looking at this data,
those young women who've been coming up missing lately
are 13 to 21.
Where where is their, their advocacy?
What is the link between CPD
and Amber alerts that we see on expressway?
How long does it take that, and who coordinates that?
So the Amber Alerts are ultimately signed off on
the Illinois State Police.
And, uh, like she said, so we have to just, it's kind of,
um, there is the thing that says that the person has to be,
uh, abducted, but that's not the only
criteria for the Amber Alert.
Uh, the Amber Alert is also can be for, uh,
we're talking about a mental or physical disability
for under the age of 16.
So it's not just abduction cases.
Uh, but that again is the, you have to strengthen
that preliminary investigation.
The AM alert would be done in the early
stages of the investigation.
This is when you're saying right up, right.
Originally like this is, uh, this is Amber Alert.
They have to make that notification.
It comes into the missing person's desk.
It goes up the chain. And then we ultimately have
to contact the state police.
'cause they're the ones who, uh, kind of approve that.
In the case of Tela Trippen in 2019, she was a 14-year-old
with bipolar disorder.
She ran away from a group home.
Um, the night ministry, an Amber alert
to my knowledge, was not sent for her.
Normally, It's okay.
I mean, I'm not, this is not for you.
I'm just, I'm just telling you what my report is saying.
I'm, this is no shade.
Okay. Right. And this, this ain't really up
for debate When we don't,
we can't get the information from you all.
We would not, there will be no advocates.
There will be no people here if
we honestly just did our job.
And that's just not on you. So this
ain't directed towards you.
This directed as a, as a, as us as a whole period.
Because the thought that,
and you didn't even, can you give me, what's the time?
So if I'm calling saying my, my 9-year-old,
'cause I'm gonna go with the high risk.
My 9-year-old disability child is missing,
how long will it take for a Amber alert
or for me to be riding down the expressway to see
that this child is missing?
And you can, and if you don't got
it, you can get it through the chair.
But that is one of the biggest problems.
It, it, it's not like I get an instant message on my phone
or on Google, on text message, on anything else
that tells me that there's a child in my community
who is nine years old who has come missing.
A lot of these cases we don't find out too
until people put it on Facebook.
And everybody is not on social media.
And so we gotta do a better job with alerting people
that these young people, women are missing.
And, and right now we're failing at it.
We, we are literally failing at it.
And so I'm disappointing that a,
we haven't done this, um, before.
Now that's number one.
And number two, can you tell me
how you all are coordinating with the state?
Because the state already has task force
and I don't, I didn't hear anybody really talk about it.
And we, we could've, we should've invited the state.
But how do you all coordinate with the state
around missing and exploited women?
Now, the, uh, I'm not even sure we have representation
on the state task force.
And that's one of the things, uh, that,
that we were looking at is, um,
So you all are not represented on the state task force?
I don't, I don't know that we have
representative on the task force.
We, um, to support, uh, SE
No, wait, wait, I'm sorry.
The No, that's a different, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
We, um, one of the things
that we covered in our reporting was
that Senator Mattie Hunter
and, um, state rep Cam Buckner,
they created the legislation for the task force.
We know that CPD has been attending the meetings.
Um, it is, uh, ICJ is the state entity that's, um,
implementing the task force.
They're sending their first report
to Governor Pritzker at the end of this year.
Um, the people who have been attending the meetings,
it's everyone from Chicagoans.
Um, there's a Chicago Missing Persons Guild,
which is made up of some ex law enforcement.
Um, you know, people who have had loved ones
who have gone missing themselves.
Uh, former police commander Patricia Casey,
she's a part of that group.
They are a part of that task force.
We also have, um, you know, people
who focus on domestic violence and gender-based violence
and human trafficking services like
lifespan are a part of it.
And so they've all been working together.
It's kind of an amalgamation of elected officials.
Um, and then the Illinois State Police regularly
attends it as well.
Um, we were called in to testify
before the State Task Force last year.
Um, we believe from our review of that legislation, uh,
the state did not mandate that CPD was a,
had representation on the task force,
but they have been attending.
Right. So I'd like to clarify my answers.
Yeah, we are attending those meetings,
but I don't know that we're on the task force
Attend a lot of meetings too, um, to the institute.
Can you tell me something that you feel like is something
that need to happen yesterday, while all
of this should have happened day
before yesterday, what are one of the, one of the things
that you feel like CPD could,
and I'm, I know I'm putting y'all on the spot
and I'm not trying to, but some, one of the first things
that they could institute to make a system
that starts off better besides just having a conversation.
'cause we talk a lot.
So when we were doing our reporting, one of the people
who we took a really close look at was the state
of Montana is
because they took a look at, they, they really attempted
to use the data that they had from the past in order
to better understand the context of today.
And so, you know, what they did was they looked at the
people who had been reported missing,
and they coordinated that with the medical examiner's data
so that they could see what are the, some of the ways
that people who are reported missing
are found deceased, right?
Because sometimes it's murder, sometimes it is suicide.
So that's one piece. But then I think, um, just, uh, uh,
there is this, um, this reporting came out
of police misconduct records.
We analyzed, um, um,
the green documents that were provided to us.
These are underlying police misconduct records from the year
2011 to 2015.
I know that there is some initiative
around transparency related to police misconduct,
and there have been conversations in the past about, um,
releasing, um, police misconduct records
that have already been redacted.
It would be a huge step
because the majority of the complaints
that are filed against Chicago police are
actually connected to services.
And when you look at those underlying documents,
you'll be able to see some of the context
where this stuff is really happening beneath the surface.
A project I lead at the Invisible Institute showed the way,
you know, mis misconduct records show people complaining
about how police are responding to sexual assault,
how police are responding
to missing persons cases and other other things.
And we know missing persons is an umbrella
for a lot of different issues.
And then I know that Shot Spotter has been really hot in the
news recently, you know, that people are like,
if we could just save one life,
we data scientists on our team looked at the same time
period that, um, the MacArthur Justice Center did their, uh,
study on how shot spotter impacted, um, calls.
And we found that in the same period of the, uh,
40,000 priority one,
a dead end shot spotter deployments in the MacArthur Justice
Center study, just over 23,000
of those missing persons calls came into the OMC.
And some 18,000
or 77% of those calls were assigned a low priority dispatch,
including 14 reports for a tender age at risk child.
And so we have to really look into ways that we can see how,
you know, this policy is actually practiced and,
and what supervisors have been, um, how ways
that we can improve oversight.
Also,
Um, I I think it was very encouraging to hear from, um,
the Chicago Police Department
that they digitized their missing persons form.
We know we spoke to many, um,
active Chicago police department officers in our reporting,
um, who were not allowed to speak with us.
But that was one thing that was brought to us
by people in the department that they had been advocating
for years for that to happen.
Um, I think that, you know, CPD
to actually audit internally, um,
their data keeping practices,
it sounds like they're making some efforts
to really modernize it because that can actually save lives.
I mean, to go back to spotter, this very committee had said,
if it had saved one life, that contract was worth it.
And actually really taking data management seriously could
save lives in Chicago.
I think another thing that community members pointed out
that I think is very important is that Montana
and Minnesota, they have really gone back
and looked at their data
and they've said, let's reopen cases where
that were suspicious or that, you know, were never solved.
I think about, you know, Bridget Rouse who's sitting here,
you know, after she really didn't sleep,
she flew back from LA and then basically got up
and came here to speak to you all.
Her family still doesn't have answers.
You know, there, there are families that are alive
that still want answers.
That would be, I, I believe would love to speak to you all.
We think about, you know, the mother of Shia Smith,
who's not here, she left Chicago.
She was so traumatized by her daughter's murder.
Um, that was the young woman that was founded at
that car on the west side.
We went out to rural Illinois. She lives by the Iowa border.
We spoke to her and Shia's daughter, who's now a teenager
and who's really struggling with mental health disorders
because this is a cycle.
This is the cycle of gender-based violence and racism.
Um, her daughter, you know, uh, can't pretends
that her grandmother is her mother
because she doesn't want other children to know
that her mother was murdered.
And you know, they're struggling with services.
They left Chicago 'cause they were also facing an eviction.
All of this stuff is very connected.
And you know, when we think about Shia's case, according
to her mother, Latonya Moore,
that DNA evidence was never processed.
She still doesn't have answers.
She occasionally comes back to Chicago
because she grew up on the west side
and that's where her daughter died to ask about
what happened with the DNA evidence.
So there's many things that could be learned from impacted
families who have really been silenced
and maybe, you know, it was
intentionally, but they have been.
And I think that they would share solutions
and be part of something like an office for missing
and murdered black women or missing and murdered black
and brown women in Chicago.
I think the other thing to point out is that Minnesota
just allocated over a million dollars
to off open that office.
They opened it in community
and they made the director a black woman.
Chicago has the money to do that.
If we were taking this seriously,
a million dollars is nothing to be totally honest.
And so we can look to other states that have had innovation
that are really putting money into things.
And I think there are many impacted families
who would really wanna be a part of something like that.
I say that because they've told us that Bridget Rouse,
who's sitting right there has has told us, I want, I want
to be involved in this.
How can we cause change? We're just journalists.
We can audit data, we can do investigative reporting,
we can talk to impacted families.
We can't allocate millions of dollars or organize people.
But the people are there.
The, the community groups that were in this room today,
I think it's such a demonstration of how much they care.
They showed up. And it's true.
Those kids at coco, they really led the change on this.
Teenagers, black teenagers on the south side organize this.
That's so powerful.
So, I mean, I think that, you know,
what should be investigated is all of the things
that have been brought up in the room today,
and we can, we can, you know, have more collaboration
between government with the Illinois State Task force
and you all to really, to really make a change.
And really, truly, I believe you can save lives,
you can save many lives by making these
Changes.
My last two questions.
How many missing person cases does CPD get every day?
We get about 9,000 cases a year. 9,000 a year.
The last question I asked is actually for Ms. Tucker.
Ms. Tucker, when you were investigating, um,
when you were doing this investigative reporter,
is there one thing that you felt like,
other than them being black women, that they had in common,
you felt like after talking to those women that they,
you felt like they had in common?
I, I think the one common thread was one of frustration,
uh, one of feeling like their cases
were dis, they basically
felt disrespected, you know, um, time
and time again, they felt that they had gone to
police to complain,
and their cases were not taken seriously.
Um, that they had to relive the trauma.
And sometimes they said reporting it was, was worse
than the actual vent or as bad.
Um, they felt like they did not get
the kind of respect
and attention from prosecutors
that sometimes the police officers did not show up in,
in court and their cases were thrown out.
So there was an overwhelming
theme that they just wanted someone
to really focus on their issues,
uh, to focus on their crimes.
These women, once they were victims, they had,
I I if, if you're carjacked down the street from your home,
if you're robbed around the corner, if somebody hits you out
outside, upside the head down the street from
where you live, you're traumatized.
But they can't afford to lit to leave the neighborhood.
So they have to stay there.
And the one thing that I remembered so many
of them talking about was the impact
that it had on their everyday lives.
Having to have been a victim one hour,
and then have to go home and deal with your family
and deal with your children and try to mask all of that
so you could get through your day.
So you could get through every day.
Um, it's difficult.
You had something to say.
I saw your hand go up a young lady with a purple.
I'm sorry, I saw your hand go up. And I just feel like,
Well, um, get the money.
For the many years I've been me, yeah, I've been in this,
uh, I've been in the, I i I did
with The Invisible Institute.
I think what a beautiful name.
We're considered invisible, um, police officers.
They don't connect with the agencies
that they're supposed to.
When things happen on a lot of cases such as DCF
and the police are supposed to work together, there's,
there are so many, uh, rifts
between different offices here in the city of Chicago
and how they don't wanna, uh, uh, work together.
It's not a thing of us not working together.
It's the different offices in the city of Chicago.
We had 11-year-old girl come out the motel on a hundred
and Halstead with a 42-year-old man.
And as CPD should have done was report that,
uh, you know, to, they were supposed
to arrest the man first.
I mean, period, if that.
And we all felt that was, I mean,
she was a black girl looked up upon as not a child,
but they trying to treated her as a woman.
Um, the, the, the maid called the, uh, police reported
that she had came out the room
with a 42-year-old year old man,
and she was banging on the door.
She had, she told the police she had, they had intercourse
and that she was 11 and he was not arrested.
She was not taken to the hospital for a rape kit
for any type of, uh, medical services.
And was dropped out off at home saying
that they turned it over to D-C-F-D-C-F-S.
'cause they reported her, she was A-D-C-F-S child
and, you know, had been in a system before.
They did not con connect with DCF.
And you find that in many cases, those agencies
that don't wanna connect with other agencies,
they have little rifts or little issues with each other.
And the the people are suffering
because of that.
Because the investigations are not getting put through.
The things are not getting reported
because our systems need to work together.
And the more they work together, the better
that the, it will be for us.
It's not us breaking up this, it's the systems.
I've worked with them
and they talk about, well,
we don't really get along with, so, you know, this,
this office and that office that has nothing to do
with your, with the work that you have to do.
So, um, when, um, um, uh, a Commander Smith was, uh,
here talking about CPDI saw he knew as much
as his officers, which is nothing, you know,
because they don't know half the time what
to do in these circumstances,
or if they do know what to do,
they don't feel like we are a priority
to go through the paperwork.
Yeah. Let me, let me point out one stat
that we didn't put on the screen.
Um, and,
and something that stood out for me in our report
between 2000 and,
and 2022,
for every one white girl under the age of 18,
who was the victim of battery, there were
18 black girls.
This is something when we talk about crimes against black
women, this is also something
that impacts black girls.
And if you've looked at the research, what we know is
that if you are the victim of trauma when you're young,
look at the pipeline to prison.
Look at the impact to what happens in
that girl's life as she gets older.
Look at the impact on the community.
This is not, this is a problem that affects
the city, it affects the communities,
it affects the schools, it affects everything.
So, you know, this is why I
so appreciate you having these conversations
because this is, this is important.
This is critical for black girls, for black women,
and ultimately for the city.
Uh, members of the committee, uh,
do have questions and feedback.
We will begin with Alder Manhattan.
Uh, thank you chair, and wanna thank my colleagues, uh,
Coleman and Taylor for bringing this to us.
And, um, thank you to all of our guests.
Um, I have to leave, so I'm gonna rattle off a few questions
that I am fine taking through the chair, um, as responses.
Um, and we'll, we'll see what can get prioritized.
Um, one, just as an immediate thing, um,
uh, a ton of work has been done here
that I very much appreciate from our community advocates,
from our organizational partners,
and of course from our, uh, journalists.
Um, thank you for bringing the issue to us.
So just as you mentioned, um, from the reporting that,
that your networks have done,
this is an invisibilized problem.
Um, another reflection.
And I know, um, our guest from the Urban League mentioned
some of the recommendations
and there have been, uh,
our community advocates that were here.
One other, the thing that I heard missing other
than, um, from Ms.
Brenda, your call is most of this violence
and I, we talk about violence against
women, it's domestic violence.
Once we just celebrated right?
Chicago Day of the Girl with our women's caucus, um,
it's men, right?
Men are the perpetrators
of violence in almost all of these cases.
Um, men are the people exploiting us.
Men are the people allowing other men to exploit us.
Like hearing, uh, that anecdote of, you know,
police officers showing up
and not arresting a 42-year-old man for,
for raping an 11-year-old child, I bet they were men, right?
So, just, just a note and a reflection.
Like, men, you gotta get your, you gotta get together,
you gotta do this work because it can't always be us.
Like hearing those recommendations and growing up
and always having this, it's always us
that have to be more vigilant.
It's always us that have to take self-defense classes.
It's always us that have to work on what we are doing.
And we do it and we do it, and we train our, our sisters
and our daughters and our, and our friends to do it.
Um, but what are, what are you guys doing?
And I appreciate the men that are here and showing up
and doing things just to note, thank you guys.
Um, but I know it's a societal issue. We got more to do.
Um, commander, could you, um, could you clarify,
I I, your division?
What's your division again? I think it was Youth.
Youth. I'm sorry, youth investigations.
Youth investigations. And I just wanted to note that.
Um, so, uh, you know, chairman, thanks for holding this.
I wanted to say, um, commander Smith,
I appreciate you showing up here.
Um, I know the administration says this is a priority,
but I don't know why we only have the Commander
for Youth Investigations here.
Where's the superintendent? Where's the superintendent?
Where is somebody from the superintendent's office?
Why do we have one representative from the
Chicago Police Department here?
It does not seem like a priority when that box is filled
with one person from CPD and everybody else.
And I feel like it's a reflection
of the way this problem has been handled.
And again, a piece of what we have to do better.
This is what it's been. This is the dynamic,
is community members and journalists doing all the work,
showing up for our missing girls and women
and in the city not doing it.
And CPD not doing it. Um, some direct questions.
Commander you mentioned, um,
and I'm glad to hear about the automated reports.
When was that enacted?
Uh, I'd have to get back to the chair on that.
It was earlier this year though. Okay.
So an exact date through the chair would be great.
I'd like to know when that was started.
Um, uh, I know these missing in person information
notices have been going out.
I have been receiving them.
I do appreciate, um, as a point of action for our guests
and, and for the chair.
Um, and the co-sponsors. I've copied you guys on an email.
So there was a young woman that was reported missing, um,
from my ward on October 16th,
and then reported located on the 24th.
And one, I was happy to receive the communications.
And they don't just go to us by ward,
they have been going out to the whole all list.
Um, I've sent an email to, to you commander
and to Superintendent Snelling one
because given, given what we've been kind of informed
and educated about, um, from the investigative journalist,
I want confirmation that this young
woman was actually found.
And I've put a couple of recommendations on additional
things that could go in the notice.
Um, like information about who the assigned detective is so
that we could call, like, I would like to be able
to call area three in this case, um,
and say, I wanna talk to this detective.
Can you tell me more information?
I want to have information to connect
to the family or the complainant.
And so I, I sent that in an email
and copied you guys on it as a follow up.
Maybe I am glad these things are happening,
but maybe there's some additional things
that could help us be more proactive, um, at the ward level
and be partners in, in working on that.
Um, and then you mentioned some things still
be to be completed.
Could you speak more, um,
or through the chair, the data collection?
Like is there a timeframe, right? Is there a timeframe?
Is there a plan? Is there some kind of project matrix to see
of when things will be changed on
that data collection component?
That would've to be through the chair.
The, we don't have the,
the project isn't built all the way out yet, so,
Okay. And so through
the chair, um, that's what I would like
to see, um, from the police department is, um, great,
these are some steps moving forward.
What's the timeline
and when can we expect these other improvements to be made
so that we can do a better job as older people,
as city council and through other departments
of actually working in partnership on the accountability.
'cause that's one of the biggest takeaways, um,
that I'm taking from this, uh, set of reporting
and what we're hearing from community
that we can't even start to understand
or address the problem if we don't have the
information or the data.
Um, and then again, just I'll thank our guests, um,
and certainly from our, um, mayor's office.
Um, uh, folks, thank you guys for putting this together.
Um, I will have more questions when we come to budget.
Um, I know that our gender-based violence work, um,
lives in the policy team,
but I also know that it was cut last year.
Um, so it used to be under our last term, we actually funded
and stood up, um, a separate more resource work for this.
And I appreciate the focus that the policy team has on it.
I know each and every one of you is really dedicated to it.
But again, the investment is, has been cut, right?
There are fewer resources actually going
to our gender-based violence work.
And that'll be a budgetary discussion.
Um, that, that, you know, I hope the mayor's office,
if you can take it back, is prepared to talk about.
And I would like to, through the chair, um,
learn more about this task force, who all the members
of the task force are, um, so
that we can engage with them as well. And thank you Chair.
Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Thank you Manhattan.
Um, we are keeping track of all these requests
for additional information through the chair
and the questions that, uh, remain unanswered at this point.
This is only the beginning
of this committee's engagement on this issue.
We have much more work to, to do.
It's a clear takeaway, uh, from this meeting.
So, um, we will be following up on the request
for information and, uh, and get back to you.
Uh, pursuant to the rules of city council
and also the traditions of city council, uh, former members
of this body are afforded floor privileges
and the ability to, uh, ask questions and participate.
So it is my honor to extend that, uh, to someone here
who served capably
and faithfully for 16 years, uh, in this body.
Uh, she's a faith leader in the city of Chicago,
and it is my honor to recognize former Alderman
and Bishop Shirley Coleman. Alderman Coleman.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Wow. Thank you.
I appreciate that. Um, to you
and the members of this committee, uh, also to
Alderman Coleman and oh my God, alderman Taylor, to everyone
that have been here,
and given I had a deja vu moment, you all,
because back in the nineties when I was first blessed
to become alderman, there was no
domestic violence unit within the police department.
And being a victim of domestic violence, I was
quite aware of the attitude of the police department
when victims would call
and were told, oh, just, we'll put'em out the house
and let 'em get some air.
And you go ahead and it must've been your fault.
And so I am grateful to Dorothy Tucker
that even back in the nineties,
we had women like her in journalism
and on tv, that we were able, a group
of 19 older women were able to meet,
to go to Memphis, who had the very first domestic violence
unit within the police department, to now say
that Chicago has one of the best depar domestic d depart,
um, domestic violence units
here in our great city.
But it was because we would,
we did a coalition to make that happen.
And Dorothy, I just wanna thank you
because in April we had
over 200 faith based women to
be at the Urban League,
and we showed the tape
of the violence against black women.
And you all, there was not, not many clear eyes
because it just affected us that much
as women pastors throughout the city of Chicago.
And so I am grateful to the Invisible Institute and,
and every one of you for what you have been doing
and what you will continue to do.
Thank you for this opportunity, commander Smith.
I was about to, um,
because it was a dejavu moment when the police department
came to testify, their attitude was such
that it made us all angry.
And so I was here getting angry, not at you,
but at the attitude that I remember, we had to face
as victims to know how the police felt about victims
of domestic violence.
But since you are representing the youth department,
I can't understand
how CPD knowing this was a hearing about missing women
and girls task force, why there was no one here
from the Special Victims unit,
or even the missing persons unit.
There should have been someone here.
And so please, committee, don't let that
that happen again, Mr.
Chairman, as you said, this is just the first,
but I think it's been the attitude
of the Chicago Police Department that I saw
30 years ago that I'm seeing today,
and it just, it, it, it's frustrating to know
that this has not been taken more seriously
and that that's why we don't have solutions.
And so I was prepared to ask,
and perhaps in the next meeting, how do you differentiate,
how does the CPD differentiate
special victims unit versus a missing person?
Section commander, you said that there,
that there's 9,000 calls per year,
which means only 24 victims call per day.
You've already said there's five detectives working in five
different sections.
Five times five is 25.
So that means, well, you only get 24 calls a day.
That means that each detective gets less than one
case per day.
Something's wrong with that picture.
Alderman Taylor, I think you, you said it common sense
versus what's going on.
So if we only get 9,000 calls for missing persons,
and out of those 9,000 calls, what section of
that are even women?
We're not even talking about black women now,
but if only 9,000 calls for missing persons,
how do you break that down
and justify only 24 victims per day in
the city of Chicago?
Tell me if, if it's just me or what.
And then my last suggestion to members, we found
that it does not make sense to reinvent a wheel.
I would like to suggest, as we did as a coalition, we went
to Memphis, Tennessee, we went to different places
that already had things in place.
I keep hearing about the great work being done in
Montana and Minnesota.
Perhaps the committee
and coalition members at the next task force
be given a chance, an opportunity
to visit some places where it works.
And let's make Chicago the great city that it remains
by doing the same thing instead of trying
to reinvent the wheel.
So, God bless you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for this opportunity.
You all keep up the great work.
Thank you Bishop Coleman for your,
your timely and appropriate remarks.
And thank you for your life's work, uh, reflected here.
Uh, and I appreciate your presence here today.
And I, I now have the honor
of doing something I think no committee chairman
has ever had to do.
And that is, thank you Alderman Coleman,
and recognize Alderman Coleman.
Thank you Chairman Hopkins.
That is the first, no mother daughter has ever shared the
same seat, so it's kind of dope.
Um, commander Smith, um,
who would the appropriate party be for our upcoming,
our next hearing that Chairman Hopkins will be supporting,
but who, who should have been here?
Uh, myself should be here.
Uh, perhaps the deputy chief.
Uh, I, it depends on
what questions you're trying to get answered
As it relates to violence against black women
and missing women and girls.
Who are the appropriate parties
that should be here representing the police department,
Um,
representatives from the detective division,
and also representatives from patrol.
And then let them decide kind of
who would be the best people to do that.
It's kind of two prongs to those investigations
Before our next hearing.
Uh, at the appropriate time, I would like to know the
nationality as well as the sex breakdown.
You mentioned that there is an officer in, um, every,
the five areas of Chicago, correct?
A detective?
Yeah. There are detectives.
Uh, you mean assigned doing missing persons investigations?
Yes. Yes. Yeah, those,
those cases are handed out in the, the area. SVU officers,
SV officers, SSVU officers, s special victims units
of the, uh, areas.
Okay. Protected divisions.
About how many districts are in one area?
Depends on the, uh, area. Okay.
'cause there are 22 districts total. Okay.
And we split up between the five, but it's not four.
Some have more, some have fewer.
Okay. What role, if any,
does the Cook County Sheriff's Office plays as it,
it relates to this subject matter?
Let's go on missing person.
So when there is a, uh, missing person, missing child,
missing person, in general,
what role does the Sheriff's Office have?
Um, as far as during the investigation,
During the investigation, the outreach
of the missing person, just in general,
if any, with your department
as the Commander of Youth Investigations,
do you work with the Sheriff's Office?
Not, well. Mine is, is a little different
because I work with, uh, the,
the sheriff's office in the state attorney's office
during other investigations involving,
uh, sex crimes in children.
Like we're, um, we're also part of the, uh, ICAC task force,
which is, uh, a partnership with the, um,
cook County State's Attorney's Office.
We have task force officers.
We also partner with, uh, federal partners in regards to,
uh, chatting missions and, and, uh, other things like that.
So the Sheriff's office had some,
played some role in this.
They have some role. So, uh,
when I was speaking about the, uh, the, the, uh,
the medical examiner's office that, that day, uh,
we were trying to, that one of the things that we said
that we were, we needed to do was strengthen the, uh, uh,
our relationship with, uh, commander, uh, Jason Moran.
Uh, he and I had had some conversations about kind of, uh,
that, uh, the removing the silo part of this,
Yes. Commander Moran
is, is a, uh, excellent expert
and who should definitely be a key partner
and invited to our next hearing.
Um, last question.
Of the 9,000 cases,
can you all break down what districts those cases?
Oh, that would, that would've to go to the chair to,
Okay.
I would like that breakdown, please.
Yeah. Yeah. The exact number.
And, uh, that would've to go to the
Chair. Okay.
I would definitely love to know what, of course,
seventh District 11th, district 15.
Let's find out where the concentration of these acts are.
And perhaps that should be how we drive the resources
to specifically, you know, I don't think that a,
like Alder Manhattan who I love,
but I don't imagine her police district will need the same
support as, as the seventh District, Inglewood,
or, you know, 11th or 15th on the west side.
And to our la our, uh,
representatives here at the Invisible
Institute. Am I saying it right?
Yes. And City Bureau as
Well. And City Bureau.
Uh, does the crime lab, do they do any work similar
to, or do they, do they focus on streak?
What, what is their role? Or is there any partnership?
There's, there's no partnership between our organizations
and the University of Chicago Crime Lab,
though we do believe that they look at, um, data as well as,
I believe that they have a partnership
with the Chicago Police Department.
So they have, you know, internal data
that we possibly did not have.
We can't definitively say all of the data
and records that we had for our investigation
from the Chicago Police Department,
we acquired via public records request.
Um, and that, you know, was underlying case files,
but it was the missing person's data, homicide data, um,
that we intensely looked at.
Yeah. To my knowledge,
the Crime Lab has not looked at the issue.
Okay, let's change that.
And I think we can, we can help make that I will,
I'll initiate and get the Crime lab involved.
'cause it sounds like there is a disconnect with CPD
and even knowing the, the data, knowing the numbers.
But I think Crime Lab have the time
and the resources to provide the information
that missing middle of, of getting this right.
'cause I wanna specifically,
and Ms. Tucker, I think we will find it interesting to know
of those area detectives, of those SBU officers,
what are the nationality of those officers that are supposed
to help crime solve these crimes?
And you may be interested in their
misconduct records as well.
Just again, coming back to the university case where
with Sonya Rouse, this detective who was on a,
at some point, survivor of intimate partner violence,
a detective who was a perpetrator
of violence was on her case.
Another, um, important, uh, point I wanted to share
with you all is that when we did talk to law enforcement,
one thing that was pointed out to us is that they felt
that missing persons is not a
political priority of the city.
They described it that when the mayor
or city council makes something like
homicides a political priority,
or at least the illusion of that,
that within the department, there is an emphasis on,
you know, working in violent crime
or being a homicide detective is, um,
a very important position.
And it was shared with us, with people
who themselves had worked within, um, the, uh,
special victims, is that they feel that it's sort
of a dumping ground for when, you know,
detectives have done something wrong,
that they might be sent there.
And there are people that work on missing persons cases
within the department who really care that have chosen that,
who dedicated their service
to working on missing persons cases.
I think, um, Pam, former Detective Pamela Childs is someone
that's often brought up when you're talking to advocates
and community organizations
who work on this issue as someone who did that.
But that's something that we heard,
that it's missing persons is not a political priority
of the Chicago Police Department.
And so, and when we would ask why, they would say, well,
it's not a political priority
of elected officials or the mayor.
So that's something that was shared with us beyond,
you know, the demographics of kind
of who's in the department is sort of
what is the value that's placed on it.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
Uh, it is evident that the, uh, amount of work, uh,
that will be necessary for this committee to continue
to make progress and advocate and advance on this issue.
Uh, it will require a team effort.
Uh, and to that end, I will recognize my teammate
and vice chairman Alderman Yancy.
Thank you, chairman. Um, thank you
for hosting this meeting, and a special thanks to, uh,
both Chairwoman Taylor and Chairwoman Coleman.
This is, this was, uh, eyeopening for me.
Uh, thank you to all of the, uh, victims
of domestic violence who spoke today, uh,
sharing this stories.
I'm, I'm, I was raised the youngest of five boys.
I don't have any sisters. And it wasn't
until I became an adult that I understood the challenge
of being a woman, uh, in a city like Chicago,
particularly a black woman.
And I think it's evident that we have to do more work,
but I wanna speak as the only black male
alderman in chambers today.
We need the brothers to stand up point blank.
It is very hard for me to hear the stories
that I heard today without thinking about a, the role
that black men played in those stories
and the rifle role
that black men should play in our communities.
I was kind of particularly touched
and reminded today of Desiree Robinson's story.
Uh, her uncle was a high school classmate of mine,
and I remember watching her real time on Facebook in 2017
when she was missing, and then later found,
and then hearing about just the love that her family had
for her, and how her mother today
is still working in DC to fight for changes
to protect black women and girls.
Like this work can't stop.
And this notion that, uh, it has to be a, uh,
if I heard correctly, a political priority
for the police department to support this work in the way
that it should be, is an abomination on the work
that we are all here charged to do with 16%
of black women as the population in the city of Chicago,
and three times that as victims of crime in this city.
Like, I want to, I got words I want to use
that I can't end this forum,
but I want to say so that it's clear
and for the record, that I am an ally in this work.
I'm honored to support
my colleagues in protecting and saving black women.
And as long as I have breath in my lungs, um,
and I beating my heart, um, I will be here to help.
Thank you.
Alderwoman, Minna Hop Penworth.
Thank you Chair. Thank you Alder Coleman
and Taylor, and Bishop Taylor for being here
and for your life's work, uh, towards this issue,
which is a men's issue, as Alderwoman Taylor pointed out.
Thank you to everyone in the box, including the
journalist who've been working on this for a very long time,
and to everyone who came to testify today
to share their stories.
This is an, an important issue for me as a representative
of Edgewater and Uptown in the 48th Ward, where
I share a police district with Alder woman Maria Hadden,
the 24th, which is just north of Thorndale.
And my ward has fantastic schools
where we have 60 languages spoken in there, um,
15% black
and many immigrants who have come from,
uh, Ethiopia and Somalia, the Horn of Africa.
And, you know, as I was campaigning
and walking in the neighborhood, I, it was very frustrating
to me to talk to people who said, I, you know, I can't vote.
Um, and I,
and I can't stop thinking about one woman
who said, I'm sorry, I can't vote.
And she walked away. But then she ran back
and she said, I'm gonna tell people about you,
but domestic violence has to be your priority
for me, and this is somebody who could not vote.
And I say that also
because our previous commander who was there, um,
shared with me those calls for service for 9 1 1,
and domestic violence was number one beyond, you know,
all the regular traffic
and that kind of thing, domestic violence.
And I also wanna say that I did visit
OEMC and had a great conversation
about how, uh, 9 1 1 calls are processed.
But in talking with the dispatchers, you know,
they did say at some point there were just no officers
to dispatch, um, on our side of town
because they just weren't around.
And I guess all of this to say is that we, we also have a,
a very, um, an area that has a lot of need
and calls for service are also for, um,
mental crises and,
and a place where people are struggling to,
to stay in their homes.
It's, it's all very intersectional
and it's, it, um, I'm glad
that we're having this conversation, uh, with policy
and, um, with the mayor's office here.
And I agree with everything that Alder women hadn't had
to say about, um, needing to do more
in a mindful way
and bringing the people that need to be at the table
to the table, not repeating, um,
or not trying to reinvent the wheel, going to Montana
and visiting the places that are actually doing the work.
Um, but I also wonder, it's very frustrating
for me to hear, um, Bishop Coleman's stories about
the attitudes of, uh, CPD back then.
And I feel a tinge of that now, um, just in the way
that this conversation has gone today.
Um, and I,
and I just wonder, commander Smith, um,
because we have a terrific, um, we,
we have a great relationship with our police departments,
the 24th and the 20 20th, and the CAPS departments,
and there is a domestic violence, um,
person assigned to caps.
But I wonder, do you think that
attitudes have changed over the years about the role
of the police, uh, when they're called
because of a domestic violence incident
In, I'm sorry, could you specify in what way
I'm asking because I, I have a friend
who lives on my side of town,
and he said maybe 20 years ago he was working at home.
He's a writer. And, um, somebody was banging on the door
and he went, uh, downstairs
and it was, it was a, it was a kid,
it was next door neighbor.
And, um, the kid said, Hey, can you help me?
My dad is trying to kill my mom.
And finally, when the police did come, you know,
offhandedly, he said, you know, we, we, we don't really,
there's nothing we can really do about calls like this.
This is 20 years ago.
And I just wonder, has attitudes changed in terms of
what is the role of a police officer when he's called
to help with a domestic violence incident?
Okay, thank you for that clarification.
And yes, uh, like what's mentioned earlier is
that you can make the policy,
but we all know that, uh, culture,
each policy for breakfast.
Uh, so one of the things that we've had to do is kind of
change the way that people look at these investigations
and what their job is.
Uh, the,
the police department has been really good about changing,
uh, the mentality of the, uh, the,
or we'll just take 'em for a walk
around the corner and all that.
And, and it's not that there, there's an opportunity to be
of help and we're there to help people.
And so that's one of the reason why we're pushing more
of the resources, more of the training for the officers.
Uh, you know, we, uh, we are getting additional training,
uh, to be more trauma informed,
and all those things are taking place,
and we get it multiple times a year.
And it's, those are all good things.
Those are all things that I think are necessary.
Uh, and this is coming from a, you know, a policy.
But like I said earlier, you know, just, uh, personally,
before I became a police officer,
I was a domestic violence advocate.
That's what I did. So I had that experience
before when they were doing a pilot program in the third
district, and this is before I came on the job.
And so, you know, that was also, that was something
that was near and dear to me.
And so, you know, I kind of tracked the changes
that took place in the department
because I came on, you know, a good while ago,
and you could see the kind of changes and, you know,
and some of that, those changes take place
because you get new people in, you know,
the younger people come in, they have different values.
They, they were brought up
differently than older people were.
But to answer your, the, a short ver a short answer
to your question, yes, I think those have all changed.
Uh, you know, we have, those policies are in place,
and when officers are falling short, I say, again,
I say all the time, then that's when you call
for a supervisor, because then they need to be reminded
what their job actually is.
And that's what a supervisor should be doing.
Thank you for that. It's,
it's frustrating for me.
It's still frustrating for me to hear, you know, that, um,
the solution might be wait for people
to retire, for culture to happen.
No, no, no. It's, no, I'm saying that's happening now.
I'm just, I, I was just using that as an example
of the different things that, that, that, that,
that make change in a large organizations like this.
But it, but the policy is there.
The policy has to be there too.
Thank you. And, and policy,
I believe in policy, that's why I'm here.
But we all know exactly what you said.
You know, it's, um, 80%
of our failure is in the implementation
and the oversight of those policies that we pass.
And it's in the people that have to, that have to,
you know, go through the paces of actually making sure
that we have the data, that it's stored in a way
that we can access it.
That's, that's useful for everybody.
But I, you know, I also am really proud of Chicago
in the direction that we're going in terms of
how we're looking at mental health.
It's, it's a, it's an epidemic in, in the 40th
and, um, all over the city and our nation.
Um, and I do appreciate that we have a CARES unit now,
which is, um, moving from a pilot program.
Um, and I, I like that direction that we're going in.
And I just wonder, it's a comment, I just wonder what is it
that we can do with that CARES program in terms
of making sure that people who really need the care
in a time like that, um, that cannot perhaps come from,
um, you know, even a crisis intertrain
intervention trained officer.
I just wonder what, what is the place of
an officer in a uniform versus somebody who is trained
to help with, um, stress and trauma
and, um, in a way that's, um,
my, my, uh, question for us to, to talk about,
I think with others here.
Thank you, chair.
Thank you, Alderwoman.
Uh, chair recognizes Alderwoman Lee, followed
by Alderman Ccho Lopez.
Thank you, chairman. Um,
and thank you again for, uh, for your efforts as well as,
uh, chair Taylor and Coleman, uh, for bringing this to the,
to the forefront here in this conversation.
Um, and to all of you in the box, um, for all
of your life's work clearly.
Um, and to all of the survivors, you were victims once or
however many times you were, but you've survived that.
And I, I feel that to the bone today with all
of the stories that I heard.
Um, uh, I, I'm the, the chair of the Women's Caucus.
Uh, it was important to me to be here today, uh,
non-member of the committee.
But, um, a really important topic,
and I'm looking forward to curing this forward chairman
with our joint, uh, public safety and, uh, police
and fire subject matter hearing on the enforcement of, um,
orders of protection that I think is very much related, um,
and connected to this topic.
Um, you know, I, it was a heavy day today.
I haven't, uh, I haven't personally been this sort
of up close with the subject.
Um, I'm, I'm fortunate that I have,
and I recognize that that is definitely something I'm,
I'm privileged to not have, um, experienced though.
Um, more recently, four months ago, a friend of mine,
Taylor Casey, uh, went missing in The Bahamas.
Um, it's been four months since she's been missing.
Uh, and, uh, you know, friends
and family continue to try to work
with local authorities to find her.
Um, I do have some questions about how we work together, um,
for, you know, missing persons cases that you know
of Chicago residents when they're not, um, in,
in the state or in the country.
Um, I, I learned a little bit, uh, on that front.
Um, but I, I'm mindful of time.
I wanna, I wanna ask a few questions
that I don't think have been quite
covered yet at this point.
Um, you know,
and Commander, I, I'm going to, I'm gonna start with you.
And I, I appreciate you being here
and the work that you've done previously
with domestic violence and appreciate the fact
that you're the only representative of CPD here today.
So, um, I hope, you know, none
of this is directed towards you personally.
Um, I, I think you've, you've heard a lot
of frustration today, um, about
how things have been handled in the past.
Um, very much.
Seems like much
of this should have been done a long time ago.
I'm really hopeful that this ushers in a, a much,
much more robust, not just conversation,
but action towards, um, solutions and,
and getting the police the resources that they need.
Uh, 'cause that's, that's a conversation I'm very much
interested in having, right?
So we've talked about data, um, data that might be able
to, to help.
Um, can you talk a little bit about today how CPD
and like DCFS coordinate
and collaborate on some of these cases?
So the, the collaboration with the DCFS would, uh,
come in the detective division.
That would be in the individual SVU areas.
Uh, so that would,
and it depends on what the case is that, that,
that really is on a case by case basis, uh,
with the involvement with the family.
And so that's why we were looking at partnering with DFSS
to kind of look at this as more of a,
take a more holistic approach.
This isn't just, uh, a child missing.
This is a, a problem in a family possibly that we could,
that we should be looking at.
And so that's, that's one of the things
that we were talking about going forward.
Well, that's, that's music to my ears in terms
of just the, the collaboration with other, uh, agencies
because, um, if we've learned nothing else today, it's
that this is a very nuanced, um, issue
and that it's got lots of different layers to it.
It involves lots of different, um, can involve lots
of different, uh, agencies.
But I think also the, the opportunity to streamline those,
like, to have more regular communications.
So you're not just talking about best practices,
but like, what are the actions, you know,
what's the communication chain like?
Um, can you talk about any sort of special training
that officers and detectives who are assigned
to these cases may have?
Or is it just something you like learn on the job?
So there's, there's, uh, when there originally, uh,
there's a, a block of four missing persons investigations,
but that's what we're trying to build out now.
Uh, we've seen that the, that
that needs a little more building out.
Uh, like, like I said, we, the, uh, partnership with the,
uh, commander Moran from the sheriff's, uh, office.
Uh, we just recently, uh, were at a conference
where we were looking at best practices.
If we're, if we're looking and we're saying
that there are deficiencies, uh,
in the way we investigate 'em, uh, well let's look at
what are the best ways to correct those.
And so that's, those are the steps that we're taking now
because, uh, I mean, honestly, some of those, this,
the stories they were, they were terrible stories.
And, and I, and I think that I,
and I'm not afraid to acknowledge that.
Like they, they were terrible stories.
And so that's why we have to be better.
We have to be better. The,
the police department is better than that
and we just have to act like it.
Thank you. I, I know we're losing some folks
to go to an event.
Um, so I, some of these I'll just submit through the chair,
um, if that is better.
I want to, uh, want, I don't wanna lose the questions,
but I also know that this is gonna
be an ongoing conversation.
So, um, you know, I, I will, uh, I'll,
is there anybody from the mayor's office still here
that can answer questions?
No. Okay. Um, okay.
Lemme see if there's anything else, uh, for CPD here.
You know, I'm gonna forego that.
Just go ahead and I will submit questions through the chair
and then we'll look forward to the next, uh,
next hearing. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, uh, alderman Womanly.
And we look forward to the joint hearing, uh, on your issue
that, uh, you had mentioned.
Uh, I know we are, it's late and we're losing some folks.
So I actually just need a housekeeping measure here while we
still have committee members present.
Um, Alderwoman Mana Howorth moves adoption
of resolution 8 9 6 0, uh, hearing no objection.
That will be passed by the roll call vote.
Um, alderman Ciro Lopez committee
member, did you have a question, sir?
Yeah, thank you, chairman.
And I just wanna thank all the panelists, um,
Taylor Coleman, um, I know we have the bishop
and everybody who has testified today, um,
on this important issue.
Um, I know that we have, uh, CPD with us.
'cause I think there was five questions,
I think in the public Safety Committee to take action.
Um, I think like what we hear in terms
of like elected officials not caring about this issue, um,
I think we should, if that is still the case.
But in terms of the issue of accountability, that was one
of the first questions on training
and accountability measures.
Um, and I think with the Chicago Police Department, I think
that, um, I have serious concerns in terms of bias
and discrimination when it comes to, um, taking these cases.
So I would like to ask, uh, the Public Safety Committee
in particular, I'm thankful
for Al Montero who was here earlier.
Uh, we took a, uh, an important hearing
regarding especially extremism within the Chicago
Police Department ranks.
And I do think that is an issue that, uh, continues to, uh,
erode trust in the public.
I do think it results in, in,
in unjustifiable bias as a father.
I tell you that if, um, any parent will see a child,
and I think that many cases that we heard today looking
for immediate help, um, I, I do not think that we can take
that, uh, as, um, as likely as to say
that we do need more police officers.
I, I just, just, I take issue with that.
Um, I do think that I,
I call actually on the public safety committee
to actually deliver action
because I do think it would be unconscionable
for the Chicago Police Department to ask for more resources
when those resources are poorly deployed.
I do think there's that disservice to the victims.
And at this, there's a disservice to the city of Chicago.
So I would like to ask on that.
I think there was already a, a, um, subject matter hearing
that was very evident that there should not be any room
for any kind of discrimination or bias.
There's no training that could help on individuals
who simply see people looking differently
as less worthy or the same service.
They're just not training that is going to correct that.
So I do think that in terms of accountability, there has
to be immediate accountability.
I know there's already been a public call on the
superintendent, the mayor,
the public safety committees, both.
And I'm thankful again to Alder Manalia, Faroh, um, uh,
former police officers
that has taken this seriously as a father.
Him and I, we just talked earlier about the importance
of having conversations beyond ideology.
We may have differences in terms of, um,
how we can achieve our goals,
but in terms of seeing the humanity of each other, I think
that that cannot be put in question.
And I think I see that with great concern.
I think that the other questions that I have, so again,
this is something that the city council must take urgently.
There's no room for extremism, discrimination,
'cause victims bleed and breathe the same.
Um, they data management training, I know
that those are questions that the digitalizing
of the missing persons forms
and other things that do think that there as within
legislative action.
Um, so I think that there were a lead of other four points
that I think the, the panelists asked,
or I'll ask that through the chair.
Maybe we get those, those questions.
But I did want to make call the public call on city council
to take action so that no victim is ever left in.
I mean, just the cases that we heard, uh,
we just heard from a victim whose sister never got a recall,
a call back from the detective.
That's just an, um, and I think that there's not surprising
to any city council member that happens way too often.
And as public servants, I do think that we owe an apology
to the public in those cases.
But more important thing than anything else,
a corrective measure.
And I tell you that there are systemic issues
that we require legislative action,
but some of the others are an issue of morality, really.
I think it's an issue of ethics.
And I think no council member could disagree
that there are just certain elements in the Chicago po,
the Chicago Police Department.
They just have no business there.
Thank you, chairman. I appreciate that.
Yeah, thank you Alderman Che Lopez that, uh, matter,
I believe is also before the
police and fire committee as well.
Um, so thank you all. This was a long day.
Appreciate your, uh, participation
and your patience in staying with us.
Uh, before you leave Alderman Cicio Lopez,
would you please submit a motion for adjournment
To Adjourn hearing? No
objection. So moved. The meetings adjourned. Thank you.
I.