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The ticketing practice is a debilitating symptom of a larger problem: the transformation of our classrooms into carceral spaces. Over the past decades, schools and prisons have become more alike in law, policy, and staffing. Courts have granted prisons tremendous control over prisoners purportedly in the name of rehabilitation and safety — and they’ve extended that same power to schools.

"Charles, Larod, Lashawn, and Troshawn are among the scores of kids who the Chicago Police Department has targeted for false arrest and coercive interrogations over the years, leading to Chicago's reputation as the False Confession Capital of the country," said Alex Van Brunt, Johnson's attorney and the director of the Illinois office of the MacArthur Justice Center, in a statement after the approval of the settlement.

Two civil rights groups are asking the U.S. Department of Education to force Rockford Public Schools, the third-largest district in Illinois, to stop discriminatory discipline involving police.

"Surveillance technology has a veneer of objectivity, but many of these systems do not work as advertised," said Jonathan Manes, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center who spearheaded the study, in a 2021 statement. "High-tech tools can create a false justification for the broken status quo of policing and can end up exacerbating existing racial disparities."

“What will this look like in a year? What happens when the political will sags, or there’s not as much attention on the issue? These are issues we have to be vigilant on,” MJC's Alexa Van Brunt says.

Brandon Johnson vowed to drop controversial gunshot detection system but approved a $10m payment for contractor ShotSpotter.

"It's really troubling. Over and over, this contract has been extended in the dark without public comment," MJC's Jonathan Manes said.

"This strikes me as quite chilling. It’s what happens when someone’s home becomes their jail cell, and now everyone they live with is subject to the same kind of surveillance as the person who is charged," MJC's Jonathan Manes said.

The Wichita City Council on Tuesday approved a $5 million settlement in a federal lawsuit against Wichita police detective Justin Rapp, who killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch in the nation’s first fatal swatting.