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"The public has a
right to know when officers abuse the public trust as well as
the ramifications of that abuse," Cook County Sheriff Thomas
Dart said in a statement. "Transparency is critical to ensuring
law enforcement accountability."
The video release comes as the third-biggest U.S. city's police
department faces a federal investigation and racism accusations
over the death of black teenager Laquan McDonald. Chicago Mayor
Rahm Emanuel fired his police commissioner in 2015 after
protests following the release of a video showing a Chicago
police officer shooting McDonald 16 times.
The McDonald video was released more than a year after the
October 2014 shooting, sparking a round of protests late last
year.
The Cook County jail videos document six cases on which the
Sheriff's Merit Board made rulings. The board is a civilian body
that makes the final judgment whenever the Sheriff’s Office
recommends firings or long-term suspensions for officers.
Earlier this year, Dart posted rulings from the Merit Board on
the sheriff's website.
The videos were posted at
http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/meritboard_decisions.html.
Cook County recently paid more than $10 million to install more
than 2,400 cameras throughout its jail complex.
(Reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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