Chicago videos offer startling glimpses of police encounters

CHICAGO — Authorities released hundreds of videos Friday that offer startling glimpses into violent encounters involving Chicago police, including the fatal shooting of a robbery suspect speeding toward them in a van and an incident when an officer slammed his night stick against a man’s head at a party.

The more than 300 video clips — along with audio recordings and police reports — are from 101 incidents investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority. The agency examines misconduct cases and any instance — justified or not — of an officer firing a gun in a manner that could injure someone.

The release marks the start of a new city policy to make public all video in police shootings and other incidents within 60 days as part of an effort to restore public trust in its beleaguered police force.

The video was captured by police dashcams and bodycams as well as surveillance cameras and bystanders recording on cellphones. Thirty of the 101 cases involve deaths, said IPRA spokeswoman Mia Sissac.

One of the videos shows an officer slamming a woman face-first into the hood of a car during a party in a West Side neighborhood in July 2014. The officer, baton in hand, screams at the crowd: “Get out of the street or you’re going to jail,” and slams the weapon into the side of a man’s head so hard his hat flies off. The city paid each of them $50,000 to settle a lawsuit.

Another shows officers firing at a van that barrels in reverse out of an electronics store. The driver, suspected of robbery, was killed.

Other video shows officers struggling to subdue a shirtless, muscled man on a sidewalk even after shooting him twice. The man, accused of attacking bus passengers, was hit with a stun gun once on the scene and three more times while being transported in an ambulance, authorities said.

Releasing records related to open investigations is nearly unprecedented in a city where the police department for decades had a reputation for secrecy. City Hall fought the release of video showing a white officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. A judge had to compel the city to make it public in November, and the images set off protests forcing steps toward more openness and sweeping changes in the police department.