The costs of decades of misconduct by Chicago police have grown enormous as the city settles lawsuit after lawsuit using expensive private counsel to handle most of the work. Now a Tribune investigation has provided the most detailed analysis yet of how Chicago’s legal strategy has run up costs, making these misconduct cases more expensive on average for taxpayers than similar legal claims in New York and Los Angeles.
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.