Chicago gang database

CTL-E-6377 · Technology · 2019–2023

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07563 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6377.

The Chicago Police Department's so-called gang database was not, the city Office of Inspector General found in April 2019, a single system but a patchwork of data systems, tools and applications holding gang information. OIG found insufficient controls, no procedural-fairness protections, and serious data-quality problems, and said CPD shared the information with over 500 external agencies without agreements or oversight. Over 20 years, 91.3 percent of the 134,242 people designated on Gang Arrest Cards were Black or African American and Latinx males, OIG reported, and 13 predominantly South and West Side community areas accounted for over half the cards. CPD's proposed replacement, the Criminal Enterprise Information System, ended in September 2023, when the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability voted unanimously to scrap plans for a new system, as WTTW reported.

The record

• Also known as: CPD gang database, Gang Arrest Cards

Notes

TYPING CALL: the backlog proposed Topic; the schema has no Topic type — Technology is the legal home for a documented data system. No subtype (none defined for Technology). ERA: 2019–2023 is the documented oversight era (OIG report April 2019, with a 20-year lookback; the replacement effort ended September 2023). GRADE BASIS: Verified for the OIG core (authoritative, directly fetched); the 2023 vote is SUPPORTED-tier within the record — established by WTTW reporting seen in search results plus at least three independent corroborating reports, but the WTTW page itself could not be opened (domain policy) in either session. One direct fetch of the WTTW URL lifts the whole record cleanly; if the founder requires claim-level direct fetch for every claim, this record drops to Provisional on the vote claim alone. FIGURE DISCIPLINE: the OIG's 91.3% governs; the secondary '95%' rounding is not used. BLOCKED EDGE: oversight by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability — the Commission is not homed, and no predicate runs from Technology to it in any case. PHOTO: HELD (see media). CURATOR'S JUDGMENT (DRAFT): This is the packet's heaviest record — 134,242 designations is not a statistic, it is a population. The graph should carry it exactly as the Inspector General documented it, no warmer and no colder. (Draft judgment, not fact.)

Relationships

• Chicago Police Department — created by
  The City of Chicago Inspector General's April 2019 review documents the gang-designation systems as the Chicago Police Department's own patchwork of systems; the Chicago Police Department is live record CTL-E-1846.

Sources

• “Over the past 20 years, 91.3% of the 134,242 individuals designated as gang members in Gang Arrest Cards have been Black or African American and Latinx males. 13 of the City's 77 community areas, predominantly on the South and West Sides, account for over 50% of Gang Arrest Cards.” Accessed 2026-10-29. (primary source · build store)
• “an interim commission overseeing the Chicago Police Department voted to scrap plans to launch a new system” (WTTW, via search-returned text, 2026-10-29). (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6377 · Combined Graph record U-07563 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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