News Archive

Professor J. Amy Dillard discussed the situation in South Bend regarding the city’s police department for a news story that was published November 13. The department confirmed findings of misconduct in more than half of all citizen complaints through the first eight months of 2016.

The details released by the police department provide the date and category of each complaint, and the outcome of each internal investigation, but not whether there was any disciplinary action.

“It’s one thing to say someone is guilty of engaging in misconduct, but that finding of guilt is irrelevant if you don’t know what the penalty was,” Professor Dillard said in the news story. “The penalty is how you know how seriously the department takes its role in addressing officer misconduct.”

Professor Dillard joined IU McKinney in Fall 2016 as a visiting professor after teaching at the University of Baltimore School of Law since 2006. Before she became a law professor, Dillard practiced law in Alexandria, Virginia, where she specialized in criminal defense and served as the city’s deputy public defender for many years. She currently represents a client charged with capital murder in Virginia.