Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

'Street files' raise question: Did Chicago police hide evidence?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-police-street-files-met-20160212-story.html

The homicide files sat untouched for years in the dingy basement at a South Side police station, thousands of aging manila folders locked away in cabinets cataloging seven decades of long-forgotten killings.

Stuffed with manually typed police reports, scribbled detectives' notes, faded lineup cards and other evidence, the so-called "street files" might never have seen the light of day.

But now about 500 of the files — located in 23 cabinets — have landed at the center of a court fight over whether the Chicago Police Department for years violated its own directives by hiding evidence from criminal defense lawyers.