#LetUsBreathe Collective, et al. v. City of Chicago

Under Illinois Law, people who are arrested and detained by the police have the right to communicate and consult with an attorney, as well as the right to make phone calls within the first hour of arriving at their first place of custody. However, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) has a long history of depriving arrestees access to a phone to reach out to their counsel or loved ones.

Through the weeks of late May and early June of 2020, during the height of the protests for George Floyd, more than 2,600 demonstrators were arrested by CPD and many were denied access to counsel. Between April 16, 2020 and June 5, 2020, the Public Defender’s Office surveyed 1,468 people in bond court. Nearly a quarter (23%) stated that CPD never offered them access to a phone at any point while they were detained at the police station. Those who were allowed phone access were forced to wait an average of 4.2 hours.

“Denying phone access is a key CPD scare tactic to impede access to counsel. The result is that detainees are cut off entirely, without legal guidance or protection from police coercion.” – Alexa Van Brunt, attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center

The MacArthur Justice Center, alongside Brendan Shiller of Shiller Preyar Jarard & Samuels, Craig Futterman of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, Sheila A. Bedi of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Joey L. Mogul of the People’s Law Office, and Daniel Massoglia of First Defense Legal Aid, represented the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, along with #LetUsBreathe Collective, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Stop Chicago, UMedics and GoodKids MadCity, who each have members who were detained and denied their right to make a phone call and contact an attorney, in a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for denying people in police custody access to counsel and phones. The National Lawyers Guild Chicago, also a plaintiff in the suit, has been denied access to clients in police stations, including during the 2020 protests.

UPDATE

A historic Consent Decree was agreed to by the City of Chicago and the plaintiffs. Under the terms of the Consent Decree, the CPD:

• Provide every arrestee or person in custody – regardless of whether or not they are charged with a criminal offense – the right to consult with an attorney, in private, by telephone or in person, within three hours of being placed in CPD custody,
• Install phones and display signs informing people of their rights with the Public Defender’s free 24-hour Arrest Hotline in every interrogation room in the City, and
• Create private and confidential rooms in every single Chicago police station for people to call and meet with their lawyers, including in the detective divisions.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Yesterday, in a historic step toward ending #CPD's decades-long practice of incommunicado detention, we joined the #CookCounty Public Defender's Office, alongside a broad coalition of legal aid groups and community groups to announce a Consent Decree with the City of #Chicago. pic.twitter.com/FqVNfqR6j5

— MacArthur Justice Center (@MacArthrJustice) September 29, 2022