The no-snitch code isn’t just a social phenomenon among citizens who refuse to provide crucial information about crimes to law enforcement.
The so-called “blue wall” of silence is alive and well in police departments across the country too. Officers have been fired, jailed and in one case, forced into a psychiatric ward as retribution for reporting a colleague’s misconduct, according to a 2021 USA Today report.
Stepping forward shouldn’t be a risky or daunting task for an official who takes an oath to uphold the law. But when a Chicago police officer does the right thing, as one did following a pair of shady raids on the Far South Side, it is an encouraging sign that the culture within the department is shifting for the better.
That Calumet District officer could have just left it alone after asking a fellow cop if the 2023 raids at an unlicensed strip club and another building were “illegal.”
The officer, instead, took his suspicions about how the raids were conducted a step further and told a higher up, Lt. Ronald Kimble. The officer’s concerns and the complaints of man who was detained in one of the raids helped lead to an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the Sun-Times’ Frank Main and Tom Schuba reported.
Calumet District Cmdr. Tyrone Pendarvis retired in August months before the COPA issued its recommendation on the matter, including suspension for Joseph Chlipala, the sergeant who had been present during one of the raids.
Had Pendarvis still been working, COPA would have proposed he be fired. The agency recommended the same outcome in a separate misconduct case against Pendarvis four months shy of his departure.
While Pendarvis evaded discipline — unlike Chlipala, who faces a 30-day suspension and training on how to legally executing searches — the veteran commander was called out by an underling, a scenario that was probably far from the veteran’s mind.
Pendarvis purposely chose young and inexperienced officers for the raids, Kimble told COPA investigators. Pendarvis likely figured rookies wouldn’t dare question his methods and were aware of the potential for retaliation if they did.
He was wrong.
“Whistleblowing is a life sentence,” Shannon Spalding, a former Chicago police detective who exposed disgraced former Sgt. Ronald Watts’ corruption scheme, told USA Today of the blowback she experienced.
It doesn’t have to be. Whistleblowing can be the accepted norm. Let’s hope the actions of the officer who exposed Pendarvis’ misconduct will encourage other men and women in uniform to do the same, with no price to pay except kudos for stepping up.
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