Imagining ‘Progress’ in the Chicago Police Department, 1867-2023

• In Event: EHC-WG Panel 3: Police and Sanctions in Historical Context

Abstract

Claims to have made ‘progress’ are a mainstay of organisational reputation management. We historicise those claims as they appear in the Chicago Police Department’s efforts to project competence and to shore up its legitimacy. Drawing chiefly on over a century and a half of annual reports from the Chicago Police Department (1867-2023), this study grapples with how police professionals positioned the CPD during and after moments of scandal and reform by gesturing toward the progress they either promised to make, or that they claimed the CPD had already delivered. We find that a critical analysis of the CPD’s efforts to work, stretch, and repackage ‘progress’ unlocks key features of police culture and organisational legitimacy.

Authors

• Johann Koehler, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Tony Cheng, Duke University