http://cjr.sagepub.com Criminal Justice Review DOI: 10.1177/0734016808326373 2009; 34; 267 Criminal Justice Review John M. Hagedorn Thomas. xiii, 237 pp View: The Story of Superintendent Terry G. Hillard. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Book Review: Jurkanin, T. J., & Hillard, T. G. (2006). Chicago Police: An Inside http://cjr.sagepub.com The online version of this article can be found at: Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: Georgia State University, College of Health and Human Sciences can be found at:Criminal Justice Review Additional services and information for http://cjr.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts: http://cjr.sagepub.com/subscriptions Subscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions: at Univ of Illinois at Chicago Library on June 18, 2009 http://cjr.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://chhsweb.gsu.edu/ http://cjr.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts http://cjr.sagepub.com/subscriptions http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav http://cjr.sagepub.com Book Reviews 267 groups, such as Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah, from traditional ones like the Irish Republican Army. One of the important factors of new terrorist groups is that they indis- criminately target the general public to cause mass destruction. The handbook provides a comparative perspective among the nations with Anglo-Saxon tradition. However, it would have been better if the authors discussed victim protection sys- tems in non-English speaking nations like Germany, France, Japan, and so on. Also, the book did not present a detailed discussion on the victimization from a wide array of crimes, such as murder, robbery, child abuse, school violence, and sexual harassment. Thus, it might not be an ideal victimology textbook for undergraduate students. However, victimology class instructors may use the handbook as a supplemental resource. Also, the handbook should be helpful for the researchers who are interested in getting detailed information on such areas as the relationship between feminism and victimology, theoretical perspectives on victimology, measurement issues in victimization, comparative studies of victim protection laws and poli- cies, and victimization from hate crimes, corporate crimes, and terrorism. Don Chon Keiser University, Tallahassee, FL Jurkanin, T. J., & Hillard, T. G. (2006). Chicago Police: An Inside View: The Story of Superintendent Terry G. Hillard. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. xiii, 237 pp. DOI: 10.1177/0734016808326373 “To write,” C. Wright Mills says, “is to raise a claim for the attention of readers.” Mills goes on to ask three questions of an author: “1. How difficult and complex after all is my subject? 2. When I write, what status am I claiming for myself? 3. For whom am I trying to write?” Despite the fact that Chicago Police: An Inside View: The Story of Superintendent Terry G. Hillard is not a work of social science, Mills’s notes on intellectual craftsmanship are useful. The book’s answer to the first question is that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is a straightforward organization of dedicated professionals who “have a long history of work- ing proactively with the community to identify problems and to find solutions” (p. 158). Cops are the thin blue line that keeps us from barbarism. “We curse them until we need them. Then we call them heroes” (p. 183). While racism is still a problem and police make mis- takes, brutality and corruption are “isolated incidents” (p. 159). During Terry Hillard’s time as chief “there was not a hint of scandal” (p. 192). If that reads like a press release, you get the flavor of the book. The text intersperses an iconographic tale of Terry Hillard’s life with superficial history, anecdotes of major Chicago crimes, and bad poetry. Unfortunately for the authors, this is a story of the Chicago police, and we have a substantial public record that suggests that things may be a bit more com- plicated than the rosy portrait painted by Jurkanin and Hillard. Terry Hillard is called a “cop’s cop.” He rose through the ranks to become superinten- dent in 1999, retiring in 2003. Although the book does not mention it, one measure of his influence may have been a decline in police killings. From 1999 to 2003, Chicago police at Univ of Illinois at Chicago Library on June 18, 2009 http://cjr.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://cjr.sagepub.com 268 Criminal Justice Review killed an average of 9 civilians per year, almost a third less than in the decade before. Hillard’s ubiquitous presence in the Black community during his tenure may have had some effect in restraining the proclivity of his Chicago police to shoot and kill its Black citizens. The claim, however, that Hillard “changed the culture of the CPD” (p. 199) stumbles on the continuing saga of CPD brutality and corruption. Whereas in 1999, it was Hillard who promised reform, today a new Superintendent, Jody Weis, chants the same mantra. Whereas Hillard wrote a memo ordering CPD to stop ille- gally holding suspects more than 48 hours without charges, today Weis writes the same memo once again. The recent dismantling of the Special Operations Squad (SOS) after charges of misconduct demonstrates that corruption and brutality have continued unabated. The murder of a Chicago police officer this year (2008) is widely seen as related to the victim’s forthcoming testimony against other officers in wrongdoing that took place, in part, on Hillard’s watch. It is likely the only unsolved murder of a Chicago police officer in history. Astoundingly, another CPD officer has already been charged by federal prosecu- tors with hiring a gang member to kill a fellow officer who was preparing to testify about SOS wrongdoing. To give another example, one name never mentioned in the book is Jon Burge. Hillard certainly knew Burge, a highly decorated, high-profile commander who tortured more than a 100 Black men during the 1970s and 1980s. Hillard worked gang crimes and Area Two; so did Burge. Burge’s use of torture tactics learned in Vietnam came to light after an exposé, not by the CPD, but by Northwestern University lawyers. The Goldston Report, commissioned by the CPD to investigate claims by Northwestern and several journalists, found that CPD torture was “systematic.” Hillard as Superintendent incredibly claimed in sworn testimony, “I don’t know nothing about the Goldston report.” Hillard’s testimony was taken in a lawsuit over the equally incredible CPD charging of two children, aged 7 and 8 years, for murder. Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn pointed out that Hillard stood by “like a potted plant” as his department rushed to charge the two children and bask in the publicity about “young predators.” Before long, semen was found on the victim and DNA evidence linked an adult to the crime. The children were exonerated and sued the city. Hillard’s comments on the police work that led to the bogus charges were as follows: “There has been no—I repeat—no misconduct on the part of any member of the Chicago Police Department.” It would be hard to find anyone familiar with this case who would agree. Mills’ two other questions, what status do I claim and for whom do I write, can now be more easily answered. Hillard as Superintendent and Jurkanin, a former mayoral press secretary, are consummate insiders. Their book, however, is not an “inside view” but an official one that keeps the public in the dark about the “dark side” of the CPD. Reading Chicago Police shows how difficult it is to get the CPD to admit its “systematic” problems. John M. Hagedorn University of Illinois, Chicago at Univ of Illinois at Chicago Library on June 18, 2009 http://cjr.sagepub.comDownloaded from http://cjr.sagepub.com