Yesterday's Sun-Times carried an uplifting item about the falling number of complaints filed by citizens against Chicago Police officers.
The piece quoted Superintendent Jody Weis extensively, noting his excitement over the new figures: “The days of this code of silence — it’s gone,” Weis told the S-T.
But the police press release, and the Sun-Times story, fail to mention some less cheery stats.
In 2009, the city's Independent Police Review Authority received 10,074 complaints, up 3% from 2008.
IPRA opened 2,841 investigations, up 9% from 2008.
And the picture isn't rosy for the first quarter of 2010 either.
The number of complaints fell 2%, but the number of investigations opened rose 4%.
IPRA is the city's clearinghouse for allegations of misconduct against police, and its in-house staff investigates allegations of excessive force and instances in which police have used their firearms.
It refers other matters to the Police Department's professional standards unit.
Weis' press release notes that the 2009 improvement involves cases referred to the department from IPRA -- which likely means it excludes brutality allegations and firearms incidents.
I've got calls in to IPRA and the Police Department to suss out the source of the discrepancy, and I'll update if I hear back.
In the meantime, it seems clear the department and the Sun-Times hit the streets with far less than the full story on police misconduct.