Chicago City Wire

Assistant state's attorneys and police officers are complaining about Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, according to a hotline created by a political opponent.

“They feel they're treated unfairly by the state's attorney's office,” said Pat O’Brien, a former judge who is the Republican candidate trying to unseat Foxx in November. “We're getting the kinds of complaints that you would expect when you have a failed state's attorney who turns a blind eye to crime and favors criminals over victims.”

O’Brien established the online hotline at www.foxxfails.com for the public, victims of crime, law enforcement officers, Cook County and state’s attorney employees to report Foxx and the state attorneys office if it failed to perform duties of the office so that the incidents can potentially be referred to an investigative agency.

"We'll refer it to the proper authorities, whether it's to the police department that originally had the investigation, or if it has to do with lawyers that didn't do their job, we'll refer to the attorney registration disciplinary commission," O'Brien said in an interview. “The report form is open to everyone but, essentially, the response we've been getting is from people who have been victims of crime or people whose family members have been victims of homicide."

O’Brien was elected as a judge for the Cook County Circuit Court where he presided for eight years. Foxx was elected in 2016 on a campaign that promised reform.

“If you can't be a prosecutor who prosecutes crime, then you shouldn't be a prosecutor. We're going to put those notations and complaints in a broad way up on our website so the people can get a sense of what's going on,” O’Brien said.  “We've got complaints from both people who live in the county and people who visit who say they don't feel safe.”

As previously reported, Foxx allegedly failed to press 100 murder charges against arrestees connected with drugs and guns as Chicago police had requested.

The former judge established his hotline after Foxx announced she had created an online complaint process where county residents can report incidents of criminal police misconduct.

“As murders and gun violence soar in one of the bloodiest summers in Chicago, Ms. Foxx has set her sights on police officers, the men and women who provide our first line of defense from crime and violence,” O’Brien said. “We all want to see police officers who commit misconduct held accountable, and that will be a priority for me as Cook County state’s attorney but this is a political stunt by Kim Foxx and she needs to be called out for it.”

O’Brien further alleges that the same task is already administered by the Chicago Police Department, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and through Chicago’s 311 non-emergency call service.