Chicago City Wire

Several personal vehicles belonging to Chicago firefighters were searched by an Internal Affairs unit on Feb. 27 and 28 according to a letter from Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2’s attorney. 

The letter, sent on March 3, demands that the City of Chicago and Chicago Fire Department preserve all evidence related to the searches of personal vehicles carried out by Internal Affairs and various officials within the department and city. 

The letter, addressed to high-ranking city officials, serves as a formal notice of potential litigation regarding what union attorney Jerry J. Marzullo, of law firm Asher Gittler & D'Alba, characterized as “illegal” vehicle searches. 

Marzullo outlined the specifics of the searches in the letter. 

"This letter serves as a formal demand that the City of Chicago and the Chicago Fire Department preserve all evidence relating to the searches of personal vehicles that occurred on February 27-28, 2025, by various members of Internal Affairs and the Command Staff of the Chicago Fire Department and/or various unnamed officials of the Chicago Fire Department and/or City of Chicago," the letter reads.  

Marzullo's letter provided a comprehensive list of items to be preserved, including video footage, written reports, physical evidence and communications related to the searches. 

Specifically, he demanded the city retain all video footage from body cameras, dashboard cameras and surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the searches, as well as all written reports, notes and communications related to the searches and any physical evidence collected. Marzullo also requested all dispatch logs and radio communications surrounding the Feb. 27-28 incident.

"Any phone call records, any text messages, any e-mails, or any communication in any medium made by and between any officials of the Chicago Fire Department and/or the City of Chicago involved in these searches,” the letter reads.

The vehicle searches come in the wake of conflict between the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 and city officials. 

On Dec. 12, 2024, the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 unanimously voted to express “no confidence” in the leadership of the Chicago Fire Department and Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

In August 2024 firefighters marched outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the lack of a contract and firefighter work conditions. 

In early February Johnson rescinded a mandatory Covid vaccine mandate that roiled the ranks of city workers and spurred a vaccine boycott by the city’s police and firefighters. 

Johnson’s action on that item came after the Illinois Labor Relations Board ruled that the city violated employees' collective bargaining rights by imposing the mandate and placing defiant workers on unpaid, non-disciplinary status before attempting to fire them.

Meanwhile, in mid-February Yale University School of Medicine researchers released research providing evidence of immune system damage and prolonged spike protein production in some individuals who received the COVID vaccines linked to a condition called “post-vaccine syndrome.” The Yale study is the latest in mounting research linking damaging effects from vaccine injuries due to the COVID jab.