Making Progress in the Chicago Police Department, 1862–2024
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Tony Cheng, Johann Koehler Sociological Science April 16, 2026 0.15195/v13.a17 Abstract Claims to have made progress are a mainstay of organizational reputation management. However, confusing and contradictory performance expectations can make progress difficult to locate among a police department’s priorities. A case study of the Chicago Police Department’s front-facing pronouncements over more than a century and a half clarifies how a bureaucracy works, stretches, and repackages “progress” to