In the 1990’s, three high profile murder cases captivated residents of Winnebago County. Three men were found guilty of murder in these cases. Patrick Pursley, John Horton, and Alan Beaman were sent to prison. Beaman spent 13 years behind bars. Horton and Pursley spent almost double that. As of this month, each has been exonerated. Patrick Pursley is the latest to be found not guilty of murder in a retrial that hinged on a retest of ballistic evidence.
"It's amazing, I'm just numb to it right now," said Pursley.
Beaman, Horton and Pursley stood outside the courtroom together. Horton said he was there because he wanted to show the kind of support he received when he was declared innocent.
"My mother always taught me when you want support, you give it first. When you want love, you give it first. And so, he was the first opportunity to come out and be supportive of somebody when I was able to sit in the courtroom, turn around and have people support me," said Horton.
Horton and Pursley now have pending federal lawsuits filed against Rockford and its police department. They allege some officers framed them. The National Registry of Exonerations released a report in 2017 showing that African Americans make up the largest majority of wrongful convictions.
Pursley and Horton's lawsuits name at least 33 people. Some are former police officers, some are now dead, and some were involved with both mens' cases. The Rockford police department declined to comment on pending litigation. But over the last few years, the department has created community outreach programs. They're intended to support specific neighborhoods and address quality of life issues through events.
Officer Patrice Turner is part of the Resident Officer Community Keeper, or ROCK, program. She lives the same area that she polices.
"Now there's a sign on my house with my name on it, my phone number on it, so that's a little different than before," she said.
She said she's involved with donation efforts and community meetings in addition to enforcing the law.
"So really I was doing it, just without the title. It was very natural, very organic to be doing something like that," said Turner.
She grew up in Rockford and said this is the way policing should have always been.
"Chances are, you know, just being honest, if you're a minority living in this area and you're from this area, they know who I am. They know me. And they feel comfortable asking me about different things." said Turner.
She said community relations with law enforcement could use extra effort because the relationship is strained in Rockford.
"Right now probably not the greatest, you know, with law enforcement as a whole. A lot of the community as a whole, I won't say that they don't dislike law enforcement, but they might have trust issues with law enforcement as a whole," she said.
She urges civilians to keep in mind officers are "just people." She said she wants to be part of re-building that trust.
Antar Baker is also devoted to improving community relations with police. He's a core member of a local group called Justice for Our Children. The group formed after the deaths of Demetrius Bennett and Mark Anthony Barmore, two black men killed after interactions with police.
"Our goal was to create an organization that would be proactive and organized and civil disobedience activities to confront the institutional racism and injustice in Rockford," said Baker.
Baker says the group is dormant now. He said their call for justice relates to both the deaths in police related killings and wrongful convictions.
"The outrage -- the human outrage -- to that should be overwhelming, you know? And I don't -- I understand but I don't understand how, you know, human beings of any race can be okay with that happening," Baker said, noting that one wrongful conviction is too many.
Baker wants to see how leaders plan to deal with repeated accusations of systemic racism in Rockford's criminal justice system.
"I have not seen an agenda, a public - publicly an agenda, saying how they plan to address this issue. And the reason why I think that's important is because that will let us know that they understand how important it is to address this issue head-on."
Baker said community outreach is a good step but it doesn't go deep enough to address historic mistrust between minorities and police. Two out of around three hundred officers are part of the ROCK program. He said those who could learn the most from those positions aren't the ones who are part of them.
"If the city or the police department say, okay, this is how we're dealing with it -- we have these two officers and we have videos of the officers dancing with kids, we're trying -- And I say no, until the judicial system and the courts start holding rogue officers accountable for the crimes or corruption, then those efforts will not change the situation," said Baker.
Pursley and Horton are represented by attorneys at the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy.