National Law Journal: "Chicago Students Police the Police"

Chicago Students Police the Police

Tuition deposits were due soon, but incoming law student Ruby Garrett couldn't decide among the five schools on her short list in spring 2013. Then she met Craig Futterman, who founded the University of Chicago Law School's Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project 15 years ago.

He described the first-of-its-kind clinic, which combines litigation with policy work and community outreach to improve policing and protect the rights of citizens. Garrett was sold. "The clinic is probably the main reason I chose the University of Chicago," the second-year law student, who heads the school's Black Law Students Association, said.

Garrett and her clinic classmates last week tried a First Amendment case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of a journalist arrested after taking photographs of an officer roughly arresting a woman in a predominately African-American neighborhood. Garrett prepped witnesses and oversaw approximately 150 exhibits during the five-day trial. Her classmates handled opening arguments and cross-examinations.

Read more at The National Law Journal