Evanston Police Show High Success Rate in Defending Lawsuits

A lengthy analysis of police misconduct lawsuits in Chicago recently revealed that Evanston cops are "just as likely to get sued as Chicago police," according to several reports.

Chicago Reporter published Friday that 655 lawsuits have been filed against Chicago police, about half of which the city has lost of settled, Evanston Now said. The rate of one case filed for every 4,000 residents is the same as that in Evanston.

Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington shared his answers on Friday to residents' questions about local police policies and practices.

In them, he noted that since 2010, a total of 18 lawsuits have been filed against Evanston police. The city has lost two of those cases, leading to the department's 89 percent success rate in defending the suits.

"The law and police departments work collaboratively to maintain cost-effective and constitutionally compliant law enforcement practices," Eddington said. "In the very early stages of a case’s being filed or threatened against the city or police department, the law department evaluates the plaintiff's cause of action and, with good cause shown, typically defends the vast majority of police suits filed, up to and including trial."

He says this cost-effective approach has saved the city millions since 2010 and is unlike that of other municipalities, "most of which try to settle every case brought against them."