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Published March 7, 2026 · Updated March 22, 2026
A study commissioned by the Chicago Police Department and completed in March 2025 found that Black Chicagoans were the subject of roughly 73 percent of all documented use-of-force incidents over a four-year period — a finding that sat unreleased for nearly a year before reform advocates obtained it and made it public last month.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed more than 16,000 Tactical Response Reports filed between 2020 and 2023. Its conclusions are stark: even after controlling for the race of crime suspects and arrestees, Black residents faced force at rates that far exceeded their representation in either category.
The Numbers Behind the Disparity
The data shows that a Black person suspected of a crime in Chicago faced a nearly 39 percent likelihood of being subjected to a use-of-force incident. For those who were arrested, that figure climbed to nearly 60 percent. Latino residents accounted for approximately 16 percent of documented force incidents.
Researchers Michael R. Smith and Rob Tillyer of UT San Antonio, along with John MacDonald of the University of Pennsylvania, employed a methodology that compared CPD's own data on the racial demographics of reported crime suspects and arrestees against its use-of-force reports. The approach was designed to isolate whether force was applied proportionally to enforcement activity — and the answer was that it was not.
The study did not reach a conclusion on whether the disparity was driven by racial bias on the part of individual officers, nor did it examine whether specific incidents complied with department policy. But the aggregate pattern — consistent across four years of data and thousands of incidents — presents a challenge that CPD leadership has yet to publicly address. Residents of Cook County have long raised concerns about these disparities, and the data now backs them up.
A Report That Gathered Dust
Perhaps as troubling as the findings themselves is how long they remained hidden. The study was prepared for and delivered to the Chicago Police Department, which had commissioned it as part of its obligations under a federal consent decree. Yet the department did not release the report publicly, nor did it announce any policy changes, training modifications, or operational adjustments in response to its conclusions.
It was not until February 2026 — nearly a year after the study's completion — that reform organizations obtained the document and shared it with reporters. The delayed disclosure has drawn sharp criticism from police accountability advocates who argue that suppressing unfavorable research undermines the consent decree process and erodes public trust.
The ACLU, which has been involved in monitoring CPD's compliance with the consent decree, stated that there is no evidence the department has taken any concrete steps in response to the study's findings. For a department that has been under federal oversight since 2019, the lack of action represents a significant accountability gap.
Excessive Force Complaints Continue to Rise
The buried study arrives against a backdrop of rising complaints. Allegations of excessive force against CPD officers have increased 46 percent since 2022, according to data compiled by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. The upward trend suggests that whatever reforms have been implemented under the consent decree have not yet translated into measurable reductions in force-related complaints.
Reform advocates point to the disconnect between the department's public statements about progress and the reality reflected in its own data. Training programs have been updated, new policies have been written, and oversight structures have been put in place — but the numbers continue to move in the wrong direction.
The pattern is not unique to Chicago. Police departments across Illinois and the broader Midwest have faced similar scrutiny, though few have produced the kind of comprehensive, multi-year dataset that CPD's commissioned study provides. That makes the department's decision to sit on the report all the more difficult to defend.
The Consent Decree Question
Chicago's federal consent decree, entered in 2019, was designed to force systemic reforms in areas including use of force, accountability, and community policing. The decree requires regular reporting, independent monitoring, and evidence-based policy changes — exactly the kind of response that the buried study should have triggered.
The independent monitor overseeing the decree has noted progress in some areas, including policy development and training curriculum. But the monitor's reports have also highlighted persistent challenges in implementation — the gap between what policies say on paper and how officers behave on the street.
The use-of-force study adds a quantitative dimension to those concerns. If Black Chicagoans continue to experience force at disproportionate rates even as reforms are nominally in place, the question becomes whether the consent decree's mechanisms are sufficient to drive real change — or whether deeper structural interventions are needed.
New Research Points to Training as a Factor
A separate line of research may help explain part of the pattern. A recent study from Northeastern University found that field training officers — the veteran cops who mentor new recruits during their first months on patrol — have a measurable influence on how much force those recruits go on to use throughout their careers. Officers trained by more forceful FTOs were significantly more likely to use force themselves, suggesting that departmental culture is transmitted through mentorship as much as through formal policy.
For CPD, which has invested heavily in revamped academy training, the finding suggests that classroom instruction alone may not be enough. If the officers responsible for shaping new recruits on the street are themselves products of a more aggressive policing culture, the cycle becomes self-reinforcing.
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