The Chicago police officer with the most misconduct complaints among active CPD personnel is jailed after a judge ordered his detention on domestic battery charges Friday, according to court records.
Additional records obtained by CWB Chicago show that Officer Joseph Vecchio was previously recommended for a 30-day suspension over a 2020 domestic incident, but that punishment was reduced to 15 days after Fred Waller, serving as interim police superintendent at the time, intervened on Vecchio’s behalf. Waller is again serving as interim superintendent today.
Vecchio was stripped of his police powers in October after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended the action. At the time, COPA said Vecchio had been the subject of 76 investigations in six years, with many of the complaints stemming from his time on a tactical team that operated in River North and along the Magnificent Mile.
Last Wednesday, a woman obtained an order of protection against Vecchio, and a judge signed an arrest warrant in connection with a domestic battery investigation. Vecchio surrendered to police and was detained Friday by Judge Kimberly Przekota on a charge of aggravated battery with strangling, according to court records.
Prosecutors allege Vecchio attacked his girlfriend while she was in bed, punching her in the head, choking her, and kneeing her in the face. He then allegedly forced her to clean up the mess, placed a gun on a counter, and stopped her from leaving. The woman escaped by jumping from a third-floor balcony to a second-floor balcony when Vecchio stepped outside to retrieve a food delivery that he forced her to order, officials said. A neighbor drove her to the Jefferson Park (16th) District police station, where she reported the assault.
The latest case comes as the city works on a legal settlement package involving 17 lawsuits against Vecchio and other members of his former tactical team. Most of those lawsuits involve drivers who were stopped and searched in downtown Chicago in 2023 and 2024.
Weapons violation arrests in the Near North Side provide one indicator of the volume of police activity during that period. During the first half of 2024, there were 161 weapons violation arrests in the area — more than four times the 35 recorded during the same period this year. From 2021 through 2023, first-half totals ranged from 101 to 122. Before 2021, the total never exceeded 38.
The reason for the increased enforcement effort? Huge increases in shootings in the downtown area that began during the pandemic and stretched into 2023. But critics say Near North (18th) District brass, intent on boosting gun seizure numbers, allowed one of its tactical teams to run wild.
During the first half of this year, there were 35 weapons arrests on the Near North Side. Before 2021, there was never more than 38 during the first six months of any year. But during the same period in 2024, there were 161. From 2021 through 2023, the first-half totals ranged from 101 to 122 arrests.
Along the Mag Mile, first-half weapons arrests from 2021 to 2024 ranged from 33 to 41. By comparison, there were eight this year. From 2015 to 2020, the totals ranged from one to seven.
Vecchio’s COPA file includes three domestic-related complaints, but only one resulted in sustained findings. That case began in April 2020, when a woman identified as Vecchio’s girlfriend went to a Rosemont fire station and reported that Vecchio had damaged her phone and vacuum cleaner following an argument at his apartment.
She told investigators that Vecchio threatened her and said he had previously thrown eggs at her car and put his hand on her neck. COPA sustained several of her allegations, but did not sustain the allegation that he placed his hand on her neck.
On the night of the 2020 incident, the woman said she was preparing to leave when Vecchio “stomped” on her vacuum cleaner. She became upset and told him she had spent $400 on it. She said he stomped on it again, bending it, then grabbed her old phone from the kitchen table, threw it to the floor and kicked it underneath the refrigerator. She said the phone’s camera was cracked.
The woman went to a Rosemont fire station, where she reported the incident. A Rosemont police report states Vecchio called the woman’s cellphone more than 40 times after she arrived at the fire station. Officers advised her to answer the calls, and Vecchio was heard trying to persuade her to meet him.
According to the report, Vecchio’s demeanor changed repeatedly during the calls. He allegedly alternated between threatening statements and crying, including telling her, “You better watch your back!” and later saying, “I’m about to do something really stupid right now and it’s going to be all your fault if I do this!”
When COPA interviewed Vecchio, he acknowledged that Rosemont officers had stopped him as he drove toward his apartment that night. He said they also gave him instructions similar to an order of protection, although not an official order, telling him not to contact the woman.
Vecchio told COPA that he later contacted his police academy supervisor and briefly explained what had happened. The supervisor instructed him to report to the Jefferson Park District the next morning to document the incident. Vecchio said he did so and completed an internal report outlining his version of events.
In May 2023, COPA recommended that Vecchio receive a 30-day suspension and anger-management counseling for the 2020 incident. Two months later, Waller, then serving as interim police superintendent, issued a “Non-Concurrence with Penalty Recommendation” reducing the recommended suspension to 15 days with counseling.
Waller wrote that the Chicago Police Department agreed with all of COPA’s sustained findings. But he argued that “it would seem likely that this was an isolated incident specific to the relationship” and cited what he described as Vecchio’s “impressive complimentary history.”
Waller’s term ended when Larry Snelling took over as the city’s top cop in September 2023. Last month, Snelling retired, and Waller was once again named to serve as interim superintendent.
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