Confrontation with a Cop

Just had a terrible experience with one of Chicago's "finest" and am curious to know if anyone has ever filed a complaint about a police officer's driving and behavior on the road.  I was riding south in the bike lane on Halsted between Roosevelt and 14th in the middle of the afternoon on NYE when a police van made a left turn right in front of me.  He was on the east side of Halsted and made a very wide left to head south onto Halsted, so wide that his van essentially was swinging right into the bike lane directly in front of me.  He stopped abruptly and so did I to avoid a collision.  It was an absolutely terrible left turn on his part -- it was almost like he was going straight at me -- and as I pedaled past him, I glared into the car.  Only glared --  no shouting, no fingers.  Then, as he passed me moments later, he yelled 'F*^$ YOU, YOU A$$HOLE' to me outside the passenger side window.  He then turned right on what I think was 14th and that was the end of exchange. 

Before even catching my breath, I immediately called 311 and have now filed an incident report with the Internal Affairs Division of the CPD.  Has anyone gone through this process?  I have been given a complaint number and I've been told to follow up in 10-12 days, at which point my case will have been assigned an investigator.  I want the officer behind the wheel of this police van painted held accountable for his actions on the road.  Any advice on how to navigate this process would be greatly appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Luke Gardner on January 6, 2013 at 11:10am

Who's the officer? Post his name here. If you can't get him held accountable, maybe we can.

Permalink Reply by PFEggs on January 7, 2013 at 5:43am

Don't have his name and I don't expect to get it.  I only had the vehicle number and the the license plate.  I will follow up with IA later this week to check on the status of my report -- they say it takes 10-14 days before reports are assigned to investigators.



Luke Gardner said:

Who's the officer? Post his name here. If you can't get him held accountable, maybe we can.

Permalink Reply by PFEggs on January 7, 2013 at 5:57am

I found your post and read the replies; thanks for sharing your experience.  What happened to you sounds far worse than the my brief encounter.  Still, I plan to follow through with the IA report and see what happens from there.  The idea that if an officer collects a number of these complaints that it could cost him pay sounds like a reasonable solution to me.  I just want an official record of my experience and the officer responsible to answer questions about the incident. 

Anika said:

I had a similar incident with an officer in my beat this summer. I was with a child and slurs and threats were made to me after the cop forced us off the road with his vehicle.

I filed a report with IA the day after it happened after talking to several people (and posting here - not sure how to search and repost since there was good advice given). To this day, my file is still under investigation. I called the community liaison officer at the precinct with no response. I was asked to leave our beat meeting when the subject came up. And when I was doored 4 weeks later (also with both kids) it took 3 trips into the station to file a police report. The officer with which this incident occurred harrasses me on occasion still (I have a unique bike and am easy to pick out). I am glad there is a record as there should be, but I often regret ever having to go through the process since it has not made it easier to bike in my own community.
Permalink Reply by Juan Primo on January 7, 2013 at 11:32am

I'm a little concerned that it takes 10-14 days for a report to be assigned to an investigator.  NOTHING happens in the first two weeks after an incident is reported?

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