A new class action lawsuit accuses Chicago Police of allegedly sidestepping the process of obtaining arrest warrants, and allegedly improperly arresting thousands of suspected offenders at their homes, using a process known as an “investigative alert.”
The lawsuit is led by a Chicago woman, identified as Ivory Woods, who was arrested and charged with burglary and looting for her alleged actions amid the Chicago riots of August 9, 2020.
The complaint seeks to secure a payout from the city on behalf of everyone who has been arrested in Chicago since April 2019, under an Investigative Alert/Probable Cause Arrest order, more than 48 hours after they allegedly committed the crime for which they were arrested.
The lawsuit accuses Chicago Police of improperly taking into custody people whose arrests were ordered, not by a judge through an arrest warrant, but rather by police officers using the so-called Investigative Alert.
Under Investigative Alerts, police detectives investigating criminal incidents may identify a suspect, and then, with the assent of a police supervisor, issue an alert that probable cause exists for an arrest.
This, in turn, can lead officers to travel to suspects’ homes, and place them under arrest.
However, the complaint asserts, this practice violates suspects’ constitutional rights. If such Investigative Alerts/Probable Cause Orders are issued more than 48 hours after the police begin their investigation of a criminal incident, the police should have sufficient time to follow the arrest warrant process. This would require officers to present their evidence to a judge, to persuade the judge, as well, that probable cause exists to arrest a person.
In the case of Ivory Woods, the complaint asserts police arrested her at her home, in front of her children, on Jan. 11, 2021. The complaint said plain clothed officers arrived at her home at about 10 a.m., and informed her they had probable cause to place her under arrest on charges of burglary and looting, stemming from her alleged actions on Aug. 9, 2020.
On that date, stores and other businesses in downtown Chicago were ransacked in a wave of rioting and looting, blamed on an unfounded report that Chicago Police had shot and killed a man on Chicago’s South Side. They were part of a wave of riots in many American cities amid widespread anti-police protests, often under the banner of Black Lives Matter.
Chicago’s Police Superintendent David Brown, however, said the Aug. 9 riots were not connected to any legitimate protest, but were merely “an act of pure criminality.”
Hundreds of people participated in the riots and looting, prompting Chicago Police to work to identify and arrest some of the alleged perpetrators.
According to the complaint, when officers told Woods of the possible charges, Woods’ mother challenged the officers to present an arrest warrant. Officers acknowledged they did not have a warrant, but then took Woods into custody.
According to the complaint, Woods had no prior felony background.
The complaint asserts thousands of others have been subjected to similar arrests under such Investigative Alerts, without warrants.
The practice was the subject of an Illinois appellate court ruling in July 2019. In that ruling, the appeals court ruled that such arrests violate the Illinois state constitution.
The plaintiffs are seeking a court order, forbidding Chicago Police from continuing such Investigative Alert arrests. The complaint further seeks unspecified compensatory damages, plus attorney fees.