Chip reports on criminal justice from WBEZ’s bureau on Chicago’s West Side. His investigative and narrative reporting has earned dozens of local and national awards. He is a three-time winner of the Chicago Headline Club’s annual award for “best reporter” in broadcast radio.
Before Chip joined WBEZ in 2006, his base for three years was Bogotá, Colombia. He reported from conflict zones around that war-torn country and from several other Latin American nations. The reporting reached U.S. audiences through NPR, the BBC and daily newspapers including the Dallas Morning News and the Christian Science Monitor.
From 1995 to 2003, Chip focused on immigration and Latin America as editor of Connection to the Americas, winner of the 2003 Utne Independent Press Award for “general excellence” among newsletters nationwide.
Chip was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and raised in nearby Falcon Heights. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In Chicago, he lives with his partner and their daughter on the Northwest Side, where they founded the Humboldt Park Gators, an all-girls baseball team.
Chip Mitchell
Stories by Chip Mitchell
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Legal experts say Cook County judges are approving subpoenas under false premises
The subpoenas command witnesses to appear in court when they’re really headed to a prosecutors’ office to help them prepare.
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New research detects the most likely criminal ‘crews’ inside CPD
An analysis of public data on Chicago cops finds that their misconduct, often portrayed as a matter of “bad apples,” is a group phenomenon.
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Cook County’s largest mass exoneration tosses 44 convictions tied to a corrupt cop
The number of vacated convictions tied to former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts is now 213.
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Police firing cases are stuck at the city’s Law Department. Those cops remain on the payroll.
A personnel hemorrhage since late 2020 has cut the size of Chicago’s Law Department by a quarter, a WBEZ analysis of city data finds.
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An inside look at Chicago’s mental health crisis response teams
A social worker responding to 911 calls says she hasn’t yet needed a cop’s presence but she can imagine situations in which she would.
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Kim Foxx is doubling down on 37 convictions linked to a corrupt ex-cop
But the state’s attorney won’t say how these cases, all tied to ex-Sgt. Ronald Watts, differ from 169 convictions already thrown out.
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Waukegan hires consultants to find out why cops extracted a boy’s false confession
Detectives in the north suburb who got a 15-year-old to confess to a shooting he didn’t commit may yet face discipline, Mayor Ann B. Taylor announced Monday night.
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A cop faces firing after swinging at a protester and allegedly knocking out her tooth
The Chicago officer was filmed swinging at Miracle Boyd, 18, during a 2020 protest against a Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park.
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The number of Chicago cops facing firing exploded under the city’s new accountability chief
In 2019, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended three dismissals. Last year it recommended 59.
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A top suburban prosecutor blames Waukegan police for a boy’s false confession
Eric Rinehart, the state’s attorney of Lake County, Ill., said officers misled a 15-year-old to extract a confession last week.
