attorney will not tolerate cops getting 'freebies'

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=74711

Candidates running for Cook County state’s attorney say they will be tough in prosecuting police officers accused of taking “freebies” from prostitutes avoiding arrest.
“I believe that the men and women in the police department are outstanding people,” said Bob Milan, first assistant state’s attorney, “but if they cross the line, they’re going to pay the price.”
This came in response to a two-year study on Chicago prostitution conducted by Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago and Sudhir Venkatesh of Columbia University. A finding of the study was that the women were often forced to service officers to avoid arrest. The final version of the paper is scheduled to be released in April.
The candidates had different plans on how to deter such behavior in the police force.
Milan said the office will prosecute any crimes that are brought to it, but ultimately the Office of Professional Standards is responsible for investigating the police department.
“I think one of the problems with the state’s attorney's office is they wait for the cases to come to them,” said Larry Suffredin, a Cook County commissioner.
Suffredin believes the real problem is that the police cannot police themselves, which is why he wants to create a public strike force to investigate the police department and develop these types of cases against them.
“We need to monitor the police again,” he said. “This is my idea of auditing the police reports to see who’s arresting whom and why and try to figure out what women have been exploited by the police department.”
Ald. Tom Allen (38th) said that nobody should be above the law, but a new program or strike force is not realistic.
“Everybody wants to create all kinds of new programs but there’s this thing called money,” he said.
He says the best way to uncover these types of acts is through undercover sting operations and set up situations where you can catch the act occurring.
Tony Peraica, a Cook County commissioner and the only Republican candidate, believes the current system is a good one and that the change needs to occur with the politics and philosophy of the police department and state offices.
“There is no viable second or third party,” he said. “That’s why you have the type of behavior…not worrying about consequences, because there aren’t real competitors that will hold them accountable.”
Anita Alvarez, the chief deputy state’s attorney, says that similar cases have occurred and that she has prosecuted them.
She would increase training for other states attorneys on how to handle cases that involve allegations against police officers.
She would “give [the women] assurance that they have somewhere to go and someone to listen should they be put in this position,” said Sally Daley, the spokeswoman for the Alvarez campaign.
Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st) says that the solution to the problem should be taken in two parts. He believes that prostitutes are victims themselves and require special help to break the lifestyle of prostitution.
But he also says that the women are easy targets for police officers because they have no credibility in court.
Brookins supports creating a data system where you can input names of alleged victims and police officers and cross reference the information to determine a particular pattern or trend to be used as evidence in court.
Tommy Brewer, an attorney, says that prostitutes should not be brought into the criminal justice system, but rather remain a misdemeanor with a fine.
“If they’re not criminal cases, then [the women] don’t have to worry about paying the penalties off with sexual favors,” he said, “because otherwise they won’t be getting arrested by the police.

The seven candidates are running in the primaries to replace retiring State's Attorney Dick Devine, who has served in the office for three terms.