(Static noise)
Good
morning, everyone. The Committee on Police and Fire is coming to order.
We will call, have a roll call to establish a quorum.
Alderman Talia Ferrell's present.
Vice Chair Robinson? Vice Chair Robinson's
present. Alderman Hall. Alderman Mitchell.
Alderwoman Lee.
Alderman Curtis.
Alderwoman Taylor. Alderman
Moseley. Aldermen- Alderwoman
Tavares. Alderman Irving. Alderman
Cardona. Alderman
Sposato. Alderwoman
Nugent. Alderman Napolitano.
Alderman Knudson.
Alderman Gardner. Alderwoman Clay.
Alderwoman Silverstein.
We have nine members present, we do have a quorum.
Pursuant to Room 59, the following aldermen have requested to appear by
remote means: Alderwoman Taylor, Alderman
Mitchell, Alderwoman Nugent, Alderman Gardner, Alderman
Napolitano, and Alderwoman Silverstein.
Can I get a motion to allow for the approval of...
So moved. All those in favor, aye.All those opposed, nay.
In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
Um, has Alderman Mitchell joined us?
Yes. I, uh, pe-
Alderman Taylor?
Alderman Taylor.
Present.
Thank you. Alderman Irving.
Alderwoman Nugent.
Present. ... know that-
Aldermen- Alderman Gardner.
Present. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Alderman Napolitano.
Present, Chairman.
Alderman Silverstein.
We have four members appearing by remote means.
At this time, we will begin col- public comments.
We have two pe- uh, speakers that are lined up to speak.
Alderman Knudson is present for purposes of roll call.
Oh, I see him. Okay. Our first speaker is Patricia
Puente.
Uh, good morning. My name is Patricia Puente.
Uh, I'm, I have a concern. The city needs
monies. And
in my area, this is what the Hispanic
have told me. They park their cars on the
sidewalk and I tell them, "You are not allowed to park your
side on the qu- uh, uh, on the sidewalk, uh, because I'm
gonna call the police." And they tell me, "Oh, we tell the police what to
do." I was like, "For real?" So then
they said, "By the time the police gets here, we already parked our
cars three hours
and, you know..." "Do you guys get tickets or anything?" "No, we don't." That's
what the Puerto Ricans told me from my building.
And I called them Hispanics. The other thing is with
noise ordinance. I had an issue. Right now, my
building is 95% better, but this, uh,
last week, they just started with their music again.
And I called the police from 7:30
PM. They did not arrive until
11:55 PM. I was
like, "What the heck is going on?" So this is what
happens, that the same, uh, Eddie
Gonzales, uh, uh, I forgot the other,
m- m- right now, the other name. But he's the man, uh, he's the
person that cleans the, uh, the building.
He said, "We like to provoke people." They
bribe the police.
I even saw them, that one of the men was giving
money to the police. And I'm like, "What the heck is going
on here?"
Police officers, please talk to your
men. You know, every time
s- something new is coming up with these police officers getting
bribed. They have a job. Okay. They're lucky.
They're getting paid.
Uh, right now, I just forgot what, uh, the other thing that I was going to
say. But, um, please
give tickets. The city needs these
monies. Don't let these people,
troublemakers that feel that they could
do whatever they want, commit murder and get
away with it, and not get punished.
Let it, let it hurt in their pocket.
Thank you very much and God bless to all the law enforcement.
Thank you, Ms. Puente. Our next speaker, Mr.
George Blakemore.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. Blakemore.
Reading is fundamental. I said, "I need an
agenda." Uh, and they was not out
here. And so it said, "Grant a good
agreement with Commercial Club Foundation
to support
the Chicago Police Department." This is the
item. That's one item on the
agenda.
However, they're going to be
getting money
for the police department, that foundation.
And I don't know if this is good or bad here
to support the police
because
we pay our policemen very good.
Some of them make 650, six and above
figures and they start with
$88,000.
And then when they do overtime during the summer and special events, they
can easily make $110,000 to $20,000 a
year. So, uh, I'm wanting to know what kind of, of
support that this foundation need to give them.
And the racial make up of the police department
is, is changed, have changed so
much. Mostly they are Hispanics
and they're having problems. Well,
recruiting Black fire, firemen, we're talking about the police
department now,
uh, uh, Black firemen and Black
policemen. Well, what's the problem?
They say the Black young people, they don't want to be
policemen. I don't think that's the issue.
I think it's racism.
$100,000 overtime all
during the summer and all these events,
starting at 88,000, don't even have a
college deg- a degree, and a paid
tuition. The money
that these policemen make. And
Ray Ray and Shanita, they don't want to be
policemen. Uh, I beg your pardon.We used to have
strong police unions, Renard Robinson, Pat
Hill. I go back, I... One thing that I have that these
other speakers, uh, do not have, I have
history in public
policy. They don't have
it. I do. They talk, flip red,
go red, and all of this, they don't have the knowledge, the
wisdom, and the understanding that I
have.
B- but we have these Black faces right over there,
uh-huh, that gentleman.
Thank you, Mr. Blakemore. A motion has already been made pursuant to Rule
59, it looked like, um... Oh, it looks like Alderman Nugent has joined us.
Alderman Nugent, are you present?
Yes. Can you hear me, Chairman? I, I did say present before.
Can you hear me? Alderwoman Silverstein, have you joined
us?
I'm present.
Thank you. Thank you, Alderwoman Silverstein.
Um,
Chairman, I just wanted to make sure, did you, you, you mark me as present?
Um, I do have you, Alderman Mitchell.
Okay, thank
you. Thank you. Um, it looks like, um, each of you should have received, on
September 5th, 2025, a, uh, copy of the Rule 45
report. Um, are there any questions and comments regarding the Rule
45 report?
There being no f- no questions regarding the Rule 45 report, can I get a motion
for the passage of the report?
So moved by Alderman Curtis. All those in favor say
aye. Aye. All those oppose, nay, and opinion of the
chair is aye have it, and the, um, item is
passed. Uh, we have one item that's before the committee
today, um, Ordinance
2025-20484,
the Grant of Goods Agreement with Commercial Club
Foundations to support the Chicago Police
Department. We have, joining us today from the Chicago Police
Department, it's Deputy Chief, correct?
Correct.
Deputy Chief Bruno, uh, with the Chicago Bureau of
Detectives. Um, Deputy Chief, did you want to speak on this item before we
go into questions and comments?
Um, sure.
Thank you.
Pardon me, Chairman Talifero. This is Alderman Nugent. I am present.
I think we were having computer issues.
Thank you, Alderwoman. I have you marked as present for purpose of
quorum.
Um, you could pl- please proceed.
Good afternoon. Uh, my name's Kevin Bruno, I'm the Deputy Chief with the Bureau of
Detectives with the Chicago Police Department.
Thank you for your time today. Um, we're here to discuss
a $2 million grant from the, uh, Commercial Club Foundation
to establish a digital forensics training center and lab,
uh, which will be located at Belmont and Western in the Old Court
section. Um, and this is critically important because digital
evidence is, um, the f- how we, how we
have maintained and, and gotten our clearance rates as high as we
have. And, uh, digital evidence, it's a field that
changes constantly, and by having this grant money
and having the ability to train our detectives and
officers, it's gonna help us to continue to improve our clearance rates for all
violent crimes.
Thank you, Deputy Chief. Uh, are, are there any questions or comments for the
deputy chief?
There being no ques-
No, ma'am? Um, Alderman Sposato.
Move to pass.
O-
There are no ques- (laughs) Since there are no further questions or comments
regarding this item, Alderman Sposato moves to pass item number
1-2025-20484, the Grant of Goods Agreement-
Chairman, I got my hand up.
Um, Alderwoman Taylor.
Thank you, Chairman. Can we explain what this means?
Deputy Chief, she wants you to explain, um, what it means.
Yeah, explain what this mean, what we doing.
We didn't get-
Okay. ... any of that. We just, we, we not gonna self pass
this.
Sure. So again, Kevin Bruno, Deputy Chief with the Bureau of Detectives.
Um, so the plan is to create a, uh, digital trensics, Digital
Forensics Training Center, um, with two classrooms at Belmont and
Western. And we are gonna run, uh, continual
training programs for our detectives and for our officers on the
use of digital re- forensics, the recovery of forensics,
and, um, how to use forensics to support our
investigations. Um, also with this, we have the
ability to run training classes
for, uh, other agencies or other people in law
enforcement, which would become a, uh, source of revenue for,
for the department and for the city.
Um, a- additionally, you know, this is, uh, this is part of
$150 million public safety, um, uh,
pot of money from the Commercial Foundation.
Over 100 million of that is going towards CVI work, uh, about
22 million or so was going toward the, uh, workforce
allocation study, and then there's about 25 million that's going for
law enforcement and the State's Attorney's Office.
And this is two million of that 25 million.
Um, and again, this is a field that changes constantly, and
we are among the best in the country when it comes to digital
forensics to support in our investigations.
And this will allow us to continue to train officers and
detectives, and remain som- one of the best in the country to
support our investigations.
Where is this work currently being done?
So right now, it is being done... When we do have training classes, we find
available space. Um, it takes our training team a couple of days
just to set up the space, and then they will run a class when they
can, when they can find that space.
This will allow us to regularly run classes to train our officers and
detectives.
Who is the owner of the building that you all are moving in?
Or is this a, a city
building?
It, it, it's a city building. Right now, it's at 2452, uh, West
on, uh, Belmont, and it is where the Area 3
detectives currently work out of.
There used to be a courthouse on the, uh-
Um-
... on the south side of the building.
... what's... What other work is done, um, in this space?
You say Area 3 detectives, is that the only thing?
The Area 3 detectives occupy the second floor of that
building. It is, uh-
And
so- ... 19 West is the satellite office for the 19th District.
There is a lockup there, and then on the court side is where this will
be.
Thank you, Chairman.
You're welcome.
Um,
Alderwoman Taylor, is that all?
Yeah, that's it.
Okay. Thank you, Alderwoman Taylor. Um, Alderwoman Lee.
Thank you, Chair. Um, so this is $2 million out of the
$25 you said earlier, and this is all in-kind equipment and
good This isn't... There's no cash involved in this?
Correct. This is, uh, for the build-out and for the
equipment.
What is this gonna do for us, uh, ah,
I would love to just get on the record how important forensics is to solving
cases. Um, this is gonna give the department the ability to train
more people and then also create a revenue stream, ah, for
creating sort of a center for excellence, if you will, around, uh,
forensics?
Around digital forensics, yeah.
Digital forensics.
Yeah, so it's... We're gonna be able to train more people on the importance and
appropriate ways to recover an inventory video,
um, with cell phone extractions. That software and
equipment is expensive, um, for the BRLA
extractions, which is the extraction of an infotainment center from a
vehicle, which has, a, a lot of information that can support
investigations. All of that will be trained, and then there will also be
a lab component to it for our
experts to have a digital forensics lab, where they need to,
you know... If a cell phone is broken, they can take it apart with the appropriate
equipment and still recover information from it.
I appreciate that, um, I... We have a great, um, neighborhood
watch in Chinatown in the 11th Ward, and they have a, they've,
they've worked with local property owners and business owners, and there's a
network of several hundred cameras, actually, that's been very helpful to,
uh, the Police Department. Anything that we can do to continue to
enhance the capacity of the department, I think is a good thing, and I, I want to,
I want to, uh, give a special shout-out to the Commercial Club Foundation for
their commitment to the city and helping in these areas.
I know, um, what they've done, uh, in terms of their commitment
to helping to fight crime and, uh, for public safety in the City of
Chicago, um, has been really incredible, and I, I applaud their efforts
and, uh, I'll, I'll repeat, uh,
Alderman Spozzato's motion for do pass on this item.
Yeah, I believe we do have one more.
Oh, sorry.
Alderman, Alderman Curtis.
Uh, thank you, Chairman. I, I just, I just wanted to,
um, I just wanted to make a statement only.
I, I think this is a great investment, uh, because back in the day, you
know, um, CPD used to have to wait in
line, uh, to get forensic- forensics done
by either state labs or federal labs.
So I think this is a wonderful investment and,
um, and, um, and thank God we have a
foundation that's even willing to, to invest in, in
the CPD like that. So, uh, I think this is a great
investment. Thank you, uh, Chairman.
Thank you, Alderman Curtis. We do have a standing motion, um, that's recognized by
the chair, and that's Alderman Spozzato's motion, do pass.
All of those in favor say, "Aye." All those opposed,
"Nay." In an opinion of the Chair, the ayes high- has it.
This mi- this matter will be reported out, um, on the next
meeting of the City Council, which I believe is December 15th.
All right. Um, there being no further business before the committee,
and thank you for joining us today, Deputy Chief, I really appreciate it.
There being no matter, um, further business before the committee, um, can I get a
motion to adjourn? So, so moved
by Vice Chair. Um, all those in favor say, "Aye." All those
opposed-
Aye.
... nay, in opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it.
Uh, the meeting is now adjourned. Thank you all for attending.
Happy holidays to everyone.
Thank you,
everyone.