Here’s Evidence The Chicago PD Is Worse Than You Thought

The release of a video showing the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald — whom Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot 16 times in October 2014, as the teen was walking away from him — has made the city’s police department an object of national scrutiny, with questions arising about its policies, its practices and its troubled history with the city’s communities of color.

Here are some facts and statistics that highlight just how bad things are at the Chicago Police Department:

Chicago tops big cities in fatal police shootings.

According to an analysis by the Better Government Association released in July, Chicago police fatally shot 70 people between 2010 and 2014, more than any other police department in a major U.S. city. When adjusted for population size, Chicago ranks fourth behind Phoenix, Philadelphia and Dallas for this grim statistic. (Phoenix police shot and killed 57 people during the years in question. Philadelphia police killed 54 people, and Dallas police killed 34.) The report also found that Chicago police shot a total of 240 people over that five-year period.

Chicago police did not respond to a request for comment on this and other statistics highlighted in this story.

Black people are killed disproportionately.

The Better Government Association study also found that of 46 of the 70 people fatally shot by Chicago police — 66 percent — were black. However, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, just one-third of Chicago’s population is black.

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