South Bend Common Council to discuss tape scandal in executive session

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—The South Bend Common Council will hold an executive session Monday to discuss the South Bend Police wiretapping scandal from 2011.

The years-long back-and-forth is between former South Bend Police officers who do not want the tapes released and the Common Council, local activists and concerned citizens who do.

In 2015, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Common Council, saying that some of the tapes recorded by South Bend Police did violate the Wiretap Act. The judge also ruled that only one of the five audio tapes was recorded in a legal manner.

However, in 2017, a circuit court of appeals ruled that the case should be tried in state courts and vacated all previous federal rulings.

Concerns over whether the tapes contain racist rhetoric from South Bend Police has yet to be determined, as the tapes have not been released to the public to date.