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Professor Rushin Says Federal Interventions Force Cities to Face Police Misconduct

December 14, 2015

Professor Stephen Rushin recently told the Chicago Tribune the salient question for cities that have undergone police reform is whether the improvements are sustainable.

“The No. 1 good thing about these federal interventions is they force local municipalities to face the issue of police misconduct head-on,” said Rushin, author of a forthcoming book evaluating two decades of federal intervention into law enforcement. “I think there’s a bunch of structural and organizational reasons, without federal interventions, that make it easy for cities to push those difficult decisions off their plate.”

Rushin said that if a pattern of unlawful police conduct is found in Chicago, the cost of implementing reforms and paying for court monitors could approach $100 million.

For more, read “Historic Probe of Chicago Police Expected to Be Long And Costly.” 


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