AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/gang-database/)
The only way to determine if someone’s name is in the database is to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the police department – something more than 120 people have already done. Earlier this month, a FOIA workshop was held to help Austin residents learn how to submit a FOIA request.
The free FOIA clinic and know your rights workshop, organized by the Chicago Westside NAACP branch, will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 at Sankofa Cultural Center, 5820 W. Chicago Ave. Dinner will be served.
An Illinois Senate committee held a hearing earlier this month to discuss the gang database. State Sen. Patricia Van Pelt wants the Chicago Police Department to stop adding names to the database until legislation can be passed.
City official Joe Ferguson is collecting information from the public as he works on a report about the gang database. Some West Side residents shared their concerns at a meeting last week about how inclusion in the database – said to number more than 100,000 people – could be hurting innocent people as well as those who’ve turned their lives around.