The Chicago Police Department is no stranger to controversy. The latest incident involves Sergeant Marc Vanek, who turned whistleblower over the alleged misuse of police resources. The sergeant sent a memo to Police Superintendent David Brown and then filed a lawsuit against the city.
Vanek’s complaint alleges that he faced retaliation after raising concerns about the “wrongful and unlawful use and deployment of CPD personnel.” Vanek claims he was dispatched to protect a lieutenant’s home in the Bridgeport neighborhood during the height of the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020. The lieutenant reportedly made the diversion of resources without approval.
He also alleged that his elite team of drug and gun crime investigators sat at Guaranteed Rate Field while CPD was tasked with protecting the city last summer during the unrest.
When Vanek complained to Superintendent Brown regarding the misuse of resources, he was taken off the elite drug and gun enforcement unit and put on midnight shifts as a patrol sergeant in a hazardous area of the city.
The story is still unfolding
The CPD and the city’s Law Department will not comment on pending litigation. Still, another sergeant assigned to protect the lieutenant’s home also complained about reporting to the post at the baseball stadium, only to repeatedly get sent with officers to the lieutenant’s house because someone had allegedly been taking pictures of it. The Office of the Attorney General has since interviewed her. There were no reports of violence in the area of the home.
There is no word yet on Vanek’s whistleblower claim status, but it could mean another embarrassing incident for the CPD. If you or a loved one has been a victim of police misconduct — due to an improper diversion of police resources or otherwise — contact Erickson & Oppenheimer, Ltd., for legal help.