61st St, a dramatic series on which Jamie Kalven worked as consultant, premiered on April 10 on AMC+ and ALLBLK.
Read MoreDePaul Exhibit Opens "Remaking the Exceptional: Tea, Torture, and Reparations" /
From the Invisible Institute, Maira Khwaja, managing editor of the Chicago Police Torture Archive, contributes new research on the connections between Chicago Police and the U.S. Military.
Read MoreBeneath the Surface Launches /
Our data science team, led by Trina Renyolds-Tyler, supported by the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and shaped by the community, built a machine-learning tool based on volunteer analysis of police complaint records. Today, we celebrate the launch of this project, Beneath the Surface.
Read MoreBeneath the Surface Workshop /
What additional public resources are needed? How can this evidence become part of the public conversation? How can it aid in shifting the conversation and priorities of the City? Join us in a discussion as part of our ongoing project into patterns of police neglect, Beneath the Surface.
Read MoreNonprofit leader Hilesh Patel Named Next Executive Director /
Invisible Institute’s Board of Directors has announced that Hilesh Patel, an experienced and highly regarded nonprofit leader who has worked in Chicago communities for more than two decades, will be our next executive director. He will succeed journalist Jamie Kalven, the Invisible Institute’s founder and executive director, in September. Jamie will continue his work as a journalist and member of our team.
Read MoreSomebody Podcast Teaching Guide Released /
The Somebody Podcast Curriculum consists of 10 lessons focused on strengthening high school students’ critical listening abilities. The curriculum includes close-listening excerpts from the podcast along with transcripts and guided questions. It is meant to be adaptable for students doing online distance learning.
In this moment when the relationship between police and communities of color is beneath a microscope, these lessons present an opportunity to bring those larger conversations into the classroom.
Read MoreInvisible Institute Wins a Pulitzer, Finalist for Second /
The Invisible Institute was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in “National Reporting” for our year-long investigation of K-9 units and the damage that police dogs inflict on Americans, alongside staff at The Marshall Project; AL.com, Birmingham; and IndyStar, Indianapolis. The Invisible Institute was also named a finalist in the “Audio Reporting” category, alongside The Intercept and Topic Studios, for “Somebody”, our investigation with Shapearl Wells into the 2016 killing of her son, 22-year-old Courtney Copeland, outside of a Chicago Police station.
Read MoreChicago Police Torture Archive Launches /
The People’s Law Office (PLO), which had worked alongside activists and in the courts to hold the City to account, donated its files to the Pozen Center for Human Rights at the University of Chicago in 2017. Pozen, in turn, asked the Invisible Institute to digitize, curate, and publish the legal archive. Our goal is to make these digitized records accessible to the public and to complement the ecosystem of historicizing survivors’ stories of police torture in Chicago.
Read MoreInvisible Institute Wins Emmy /
The SHOWTIME documentary 16 Shots, co-produced by the Invisible Institute, received the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary.
Read More"Code of Silence" Published /
The Intercept publishes Jamie Kalven treatise on the “code of silence” within the Chicago Police Department— described not as a vague culture but as a set of institutional mechanisms central to the operation of the CPD.
Read MoreYouth Police/Project Director Chaclyn Hunt Talks Transparency, Police Accountability and Youth Engagement on Chicago Tonight /
Chaclyn Hunt is an attorney and the director of the Invisible Institute Youth/Police Project, which interviews black youth about their experiences with Chicago police. She coordinated a Youth/Police Conference at the University of Chicago Law School last year to report on youth experience with police.
Read More@CPDPbot Announced at #ChiHackNight /
@CPDPbot will check through its database of CPD police misconduct complaints and respond to tweets with a brief summary of the named officer's complaint history if it finds anything along with a link to that officer's profile on the Citizens Police Data Project.
Read MoreJamie Kalven Receives Ridenhour Courage Prize /
Jamie Kalven, founder and executive director of Chicago’s Invisible Institute, has just been named the winner of this year’s Ridenhour Courage Prize. He was cited for his “central role” in breaking the story of the death of Laquan McDonald at the hands of Chicago police.
Read MoreDarryl Holliday Profiles "The New Black Power" in Chicago Magazine /
Invisible Institute producer Darryl Holliday profiles Chicago's Black Lives Matter movement through one of its most prominent activist organizations, the Black Youth Project 100. The Chicago magazine piece is featured in the March issue and online here, with artwork from our partner, Illustrated Press.
Read MoreInvisible Institute Wins Knight News Challenge on Data /
Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police Data Project among 17 winners of the Knight News Challenge on Data at a convening at Civic Hall in New York. Each of the winners will receive a share of $3.2 million to develop their project, which seeks to answer the question: How might we make data work for individuals and communities?
Read More“Chicago After Laquan McDonald: Rebuilding the Trust" Panel /
Jamie Kalven was on a panel of journalists and policing professionals, January 7, 2016, at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. The conversation, “Chicago After Laquan McDonald: Rebuilding the Trust,” included retired St. Louis Chief of Police Daniel Isom, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell and Kate Grossman as moderator.