Law enforcement in Liberal Chicago: convictions at any cost

This story from CBS is very shocking. The title of the report says it all: "Police Report Lies Were Encouraged."

Indicted Chicago police officer Keith Herrera says his superiors knew and encouraged him to lie on reports so questionable arrests would stand up in court.

In his first interview, Herrera, who also admits to stealing money, takes Katie Couric inside the Special Operations Section, an elite group of officers, some of whom he says profited during their quest to take criminals off the streets in one of the city’s largest police scandals.

The report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Herrera and six fellow SOS members were charged with crimes including armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping - many against suspected drug dealers. They have all pled not guilty. They are also accused of routinely lying on police reports. "Creative writing was a certain term that bosses used to make sure that the job got done," he says. His bosses, says Herrera, wanted the cases to stick in court. "I didn’t just pick up a pen and just learn how to [lie on reports]. Bosses, guys that I work with who were older than I was…It’s taught to you," he tells Couric.

The SOS mission was to get drugs and guns off the street, he says, "at any cost."

Getting the job done often entailed breaking the rules, says Herrera. He describes to Couric a hypothetical scenario where to make a case stick against a gunman who tossed his weapon, a cop would lie in the police report and say that the gun never left the man’s hand. "Do you want that guy…that just shot somebody to not go to jail because he threw the gun? Or do you want him to go to jail because he never let the gun out of his hand?" asks Herrera. "I know what I’ve got to do."