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1,000+ Officers May Be Disciplined For Peeping At Report

UPDATED 04/22/11 9:28 a.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Police Department is planning to investigate more than 1,000 of its own officers for looking up the police report of a woman allegedly sexually assaulted by two on-duty officers.

Sources confirm to CBS 2 News that any officer who looked up the report about the incident allegedly involving two Town Hall District officers will face disciplinary action.

LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Steve Miller reports

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Looking up the report is against the rules, so any officer who has done so may be written up, request a disciplinary hearing, or choose to take some unpaid days off.

The unofficial police blog Second City Cop scanned a copy of what it said was a memo from the Internal Affairs Division.

"Any member who accesses information through the Department's computerized information systems is accountable for the appropriate use and disposal of the information. Access to information is restricted to official police business. Access of information for personal or other reasons is strictly prohibited," the memo from Internal Affairs Division Chief Juan Rivera says. "As a result of this violation, the listed memories are to receive summary punishment."

The blog did not publish the list of officers up for disciplinary action.

The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police calls the move to discipline the officers "almost comical."

"To begin with, they have the internal capacity to block sensitive reports, and they didn't do it," said FOP spokesman Pat Camden.

Camden adds that the department could tell specifically who did access and print out the salacious reports, so it shouldn't mete out widespread discipline.

He says mass-punishment of officers is "not the way to handle an investigation," even if it is limited to a mild slap known as SPAR in police department jargon.

"They're just coming out with a blanket statement that says we're going to SPAR 1,300 people, or whatever the number is," Camden said.

The report in question concerns the alleged sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman by two officers late last month.

The report says the woman was crying while walking outside after leaving a male friend's home where they had been drinking and arguing.

At some point, a marked Chicago Police Tahoe SUV approached with two male officers inside. They offered the woman a ride home, and she accepted, according to the report.

The woman told police that during the ride, she had sex with one of the officers in a passenger seat of the SUV and that she did not say "no," according to the report.

When they arrived at her apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood, all three went inside, where they played strip poker and she had sex with one officer in her bed. But she began banging on her wall with her hands hoping to catch her neighbors' attention, saying she felt intimidated by the officers and was afraid to say "no" to their sexual advances, the report said.

She eventually ran from her apartment screaming and pounding on a male neighbor's door, who didn't answer. Another neighbor, a woman, saw her and called police, prompting an initial response about 3 a.m. for a "person calling for help."

When the male neighbor finally opened his door after hearing the commotion, he told police he saw a naked man running down the hallway and another man dressed in a Chicago Police uniform walking away, according to the report.

Police sources say the officers left behind mock turtleneck collars with the letters CPD embroidered on them, a cell phone, and a police belt-keeper. The victim was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston for treatment.

CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot later reported that other women had reported similar allegations against the same officers in the past, but at the time refused to proceed with the case against the officers.

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