Do you chase him? Or do you figure this is far enough?”  But you don't have to be a police commissioner to see the possibilities.  The headlines are full of it: TALES OF CORRUPTION AGAIN TAR  N.Y. POLICE…  9 NEW ORLEANS OFFICERS INDICTED ON DRUG, GUN CHARGES… U.S. CHARGES 12 D.C. OFFICERS WITH A DRUG-PROTECTION RACKET... WIDESPREAD CORRUPTION IN L.A. NARCOTICS SQUAD...^[1]  In one brief period, over 20 officers from Brooklyn's 75th Precinct were implicated in drug dealing, gun-running, and murder.  In neighboring Brownsville, ten officers from the 73rd were tagged with running their own drug ring.  In the 30th up in Harlem—“Dirty Thirty”—two dozen officers were charged with shaking down dealers and selling the drugs themselves. Investigators said at least ten of the 75 New York precincts may be involved.^[2]  In Los Angeles, one of the sheriff's elite narcotics squads went down in flames when they were videotaped stealing drug money from a motel room.  No sooner was this team dispatched to jail than three deputies from another squad were busted with over a million dollars they shook out of dealers and money launderers.^[3] 

In Chicago, they seem to have figured out how to avoid all this untidyness. This is a city that understands corruption, and they have a biblical fix on it: “Lead us not into temptation.”  All ongoing narcotics investigations are handled by the narcotics squad, and the narcotics squad itself is focused entirely on small-time buy-bust arrests.  There's almost zero chance of anybody in the lower ranks stumbling into a roomful of cash or a truckload of coke. And any serious attempt to follow the trail upward is discouraged.  As they told Goff, “You're going after the right guys and somebody's gonna get hurt.”^[4]

Of course, there are a couple of ways to read that statement. It's clear the department has a legitimate concern about holding down the level of mayhem.  But any time the boss says, “Don't open that door,” your average Chicago cop is going to suspect there's something behind the door. “I have a good idea,” says Goff.  “You can't really nail it down, but a lot of guys are thinking somebody's making bread somewhere.”