Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41, 24 (1999)

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48

CHICAGO v. MORALES

Opinion of the Court

Two months after the ordinance was adopted, the Chicago Police Department promulgated General Order 92-4 to provide guidelines to govern its enforcement.3 That order purported to establish limitations on the enforcement discretion of police officers "to ensure that the anti-gang loitering ordinance is not enforced in an arbitrary or discriminatory way." Chicago Police Department, General Order 92-4, reprinted in App. to Pet. for Cert. 65a. The limitations confine the authority to arrest gang members who violate the ordinance to sworn "members of the Gang Crime Section" and certain other designated officers,4 and establish detailed criteria for defining street gangs and membership in such gangs. Id., at 66a-67a. In addition, the order directs district commanders to "designate areas in which the presence of gang members has a demonstrable effect on the activities of law abiding persons in the surrounding community," and provides that the ordinance "will be enforced only within the desig-individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity.

. . . . . "(5) 'Public place' means the public way and any other location open to the public, whether publicly or privately owned.

"(e) Any person who violates this Section is subject to a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $500 for each offense, or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.

"In addition to or instead of the above penalties, any person who violates this section may be required to perform up to 120 hours of community service pursuant to section 1-4-120 of this Code." Chicago Municipal Code § 8-4-015 (added June 17, 1992), reprinted in App. to Pet. for Cert. 61a-63a.

3 As the Illinois Supreme Court noted, during the hearings preceding the adoption of the ordinance, "representatives of the Chicago law and police departments informed the city counsel that any limitations on the discretion police have in enforcing the ordinance would be best developed through police policy, rather than placing such limitations into the ordinance itself." 177 Ill. 2d, at 446, 687 N. E. 2d, at 58-59.

4 Presumably, these officers would also be able to arrest all nongang members who violate the ordinance.

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