Craig Futterman, the lawyer who represented Ms. Bond, had been introduced to Kalven through a mutual friend. Futterman was, and still is, a professor of law at the UofC Law School’s Mandel Legal Aid where he directs the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. Collaborating with Kalven, Futterman and his students had worked on a series of federal civil rights cases arising out of incidents at Stateway by the time that Ms. Bond’s case came about.

It was this case, Bond v. Utreras, et al.,that started the series of legal battles that would eventually lead to the release of the information presented in the Chicago Police Database.

In this case, Kalven and his students crafted requests for background information on the five police officers involved in the case. They also requested a list of all officers who had received ten or more complaints in the last five years.

“These requests were really designed to extract information from the city that could be analyzed to see—how does this system work and not work to allow guys that are so outrageously abusive to act with impunity,” said Kalven.

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