Wave of police killings in Colombia copies drug lord Pablo Escobar's terror tactics
Colombia Wave of police killings in Colombia copies drug lord Pablo Escobar's terror tactics
A graphic of police officers recently killed in Colombia. Credit: Colombian National Police
Nineteen police officers and 12 soldiers have been killed by armed groups in Colombia since April 15, in what President Gustavo Petro has called a 'plan pistola' – a tactic popularized by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar that seeks to terrorize law enforcement.
According to police, armed groups are putting cash bounties on officers' heads, a strategy Escobar used in the 1990s during peak cartel violence. Security experts say the killings are a backlash by groups like the Gaitanist Army of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, which have suffered losses in recent government offensives.
In the face of the threats, the National Police reaffirmed its commitment to security, with its director, General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, telling the Miami Herald that 'this institution is compelled by the memory of our murdered comrades to continue confronting any expression of crime.'
In total, at least 21 police officers were murdered in Colombia in the first four months of the year, four times the number killed in the same period last year, according to Colombian media.
'Organized crime has dusted off an old, perverse and desperate practice of the sort Pablo Escobar used to try to prevent the fall of his cocaine empire: putting a price on the lives of the country's police officers,' Triana wrote in a newspaper column on Sunday.
Bullet hole in government office in Quibdó, Colombia. Credit: Alfie Pannell
The assassinations are the latest escalation in what many analysts describe as a deteriorating security situation in Colombia, which has seen intensified conflict in several regions this year.
In February, Petro appointed Pedro Sánchez as defense minister – the first military official to hold the role in over three decades – signaling a shift away from the president's 'total peace' plan that sought to negotiate a settlement with Colombia's armed groups.
'Since the appointment of the new Defense Minister, there has been a very notable and clear increase in offensive operations against… [armed] groups,' said Elizabeth Dickinson, senior Colombia analyst at the Brussels-based Crisis Group.
The current plan pistola is seen as a backlash against this security campaign, which has killed multiple leaders of armed groups.
General Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, Director of Colombian National Police. Credit: Colombian National Police
Authorities allege the Gaitanist Army launched the plan after security forces killed one of its top commanders, José Miguel Demoya Hernández, alias Chirimoya, on April 5.
'What we are seeing is the government is gaining ground and these organizations feel threatened,' said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a security consultancy.
In an X post on Tuesday, Petro specifically blamed the Gaitanist Army, which has its roots in the demobilized paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, active in the 1990s and 2000s.
'In response to the downfall of several of its leaders, [the group] has decided to kill the children of the people,' the president wrote.
Sánchez, the defense minister, said the killings were carried out by sicarios, or paid hitmen, with police reporting that the Gaitanist Army, Colombia's largest criminal organization, is offering up to $3 million Colombian pesos — about $700 — per officer killed.
A lawyer for the group declined to comment.
The Gaitanist Army's reported bounties mimic Escobar's strategy in the 1990s, when he offered rewards for killing police officers as part of a terror campaign against the government. From 1990-93, at least 153 police officers were killed in the drug lord's home city of Medellín, according to Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory.
It remains unclear which group initiated the plan pistola, with no organization publicly claiming credit for the killings.
While both police and soldiers have been targeted, the police are a 'softer target', Dickinson said. They tend to be less heavily armed or protected, and usually operate in civilian spaces.
'This has been sort of the easy target for armed groups to send a message to the government without the same risks that they face if they were to try the same thing against soldiers,' the analyst said.
Five of the 15 officers murdered during the two weeks in April were off duty, Petro said.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Sebastián Barros
Long Visual Press/Abaca/Sipa USA
Triana, the national police director, was defiant in the face of the attacks, telling the Herald that police have arrested 217 Gaitanist Army members since the plan pistola began.
'We continue to strengthen the operational security of our police force, adjusting routines, duties, and casework, especially in high complexity zones,' Triana said.
The police have also begun taking exceptional measures, allowing officers to take their service weapons home and, in some rural regions, confining them to their stations.
Soldiers are on maximum alert in several departments, where the army ordered them to remain in their barracks.
Meanwhile, Petro maintained that the state will not back down from its offensive against armed groups.
Said the president on X: 'We will not retreat.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Cuts to Medicaid for Ohioans with disabilities could take away home care and job help
(iStock / Getty Images Plus) As the Ohio Senate moves forward with its budget proposal, advocates for Medicaid are hoping changes can be made to avoid significant impacts to low income residents, elderly Ohioans, and people with disabilities. Funding from Medicaid allows 3 million Ohioans access to health care services, including more than 770,000 who receive them through the Medicaid expansion program instituted in 2014. That expansion program allows people who weren't eligible for the traditional Medicaid programs but were still in categories of need to access health care. The existence of that program dropped the uninsured rate in Ohio to historic levels, according to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio. Along with health care, Medicaid dollars help with services that aren't necessarily connected to medical treatment, like home care, employment help, transportation, and a direct care provider who helps with all of those things. 'In many cases, if there wasn't Medicaid dollars behind it, I know of many people whose ability to live outside of a hospital or in the community would be threatened,' said Jules Patalita, a disability rights advocate for Sylvania-based The Ability Center. So advocates were disappointed to see the Ohio Senate maintain a provision from both the Ohio House's and Gov. Mike DeWine's budget proposals that would eliminate the Medicaid expansion group if the federal government reduces their level of support (currently at 90%) by even 1%. 'This would be a substantial loss for many working Ohioans,' said Kathryn Poe, researcher for the think tank Policy Matters Ohio. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Also included in the Senate's budget proposal is the elimination of a Medicaid waiver that 'would have provided continuous coverage for kids up to age 3,' Poe said, and a separate section of the budget that would 'allow the state to pause, eliminate or change other funds related to all other federal grants, should Congress adjust or eliminate funding for that program.' Poe did praise the Senate proposal for removing a House-submitted provision limiting Medicaid reimbursement for doulas to only six Ohio counties. 'This will ensure that Ohio parents continue to have access to culturally appropriate birthing resources and management,' Poe said. Concerns about loss of access don't just extend to physical health concerns or daily home services, but also to behavioral health services, on which 47% of Ohio adults on Medicaid rely, according to Kerstin Sjoberg, president and CEO of Disability Rights Ohio. 'If you don't have access to some sort of insurance like Medicaid, it's going to be almost impossible to get those services,' Sjoberg said. The state-level discussions come as federal budget reconciliation also touches on Medicaid funding as the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress attempt to slash federal spending by $880 billion over the next decade, particularly from public assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders have talked about 'abuse' or 'fraud' as sources of revenue loss for the country in public programs, something those who engage with users of programs like Medicaid push back on. 'In reality, Medicaid is one of the most cost-effective and widely used safety nets in the country,' said the advocacy group Innovation Ohio in a call-to-action email over the congressional budget proposals. 'If this bill becomes law, the result will be fewer people with health care, more families pushed into poverty and deeper inequality. Rural hospitals could shut down.' According to a study by the Commonwealth Fund, Ohio could be one of the hardest hit economies if Medicaid cuts at the federal level come to fruition, cuts that could mean 29% more Medicaid spending by states or cuts to other programs, like education, to offset the Medicaid losses. One thing that will have to be addressed whether or not the cuts are realized in the state and federal budgets is the workforce that helps those who use Medicaid for home care and other services. Patalita said the word 'crisis' has been used in talking about the shortage of direct care providers, similar to the shortage of child care workers needed to provide adequate access to that service. 'We've talked to people who have had to wait weeks to be able to receive services in the home, because there just aren't enough providers out there,' Patalita said. The Ability Center did a study after the previous state budget increased the reimbursement rate for direct care providers under the state Medicaid program. That study showed that while reimbursements rates and, for that matter, provider wages should go up, the solution to the shortage problem wouldn't come with just one answer. 'The direct care crisis is too complex of an issue for a single action to remedy,' The Ability Center found. The study identified three 'major elements' of the shortage: high turnover rates, low hourly wages (lower than 'many entry level positions in retail and food service,' according to the study), and a lack of consistency in benefits. 'This failure by agencies to provide benefits adds to the worker shortage and forces those requiring home care to carry the burden of decreased access to care, especially those in rural areas,' the study found. Eliminating Medicaid funding, including the expansion group, will make life harder for those Ohioans who need the services, Sjoberg said, 'but it will also make it necessary that the direct care workforce is supported in other ways.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Trump tells Post he's 'less confident' about Iran deal, but vows mullahs won't get nukes
President Trump is losing hope that Iran will agree to end all uranium enrichment in a revised nuclear deal with the United States — but remains determined not to allow Tehran to get their hands on an atomic weapon, he told The Post's Miranda Devine on the first episode of her new podcast 'Pod Force One,' airing Wednesday. 'I don't know,' Trump, 78, told Devine when asked Monday if he thought he could get Iran to agree to shut down its nuclear program. 'I don't know. I did think so, and I'm getting more and more — less confident about it. Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here! 'They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame, but I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made.' 'What happens then?' asked Devine. 'Well, if they don't make a deal, they're not going to have a nuclear weapon,' Trump answered. 'If they do make a deal, they're not going have a nuclear weapon, too, you know? But they're not going a have a new nuclear weapon, so it's not going to matter from that standpoint. 'But it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying, it's so much nicer to do it. But I don't think I see the same level of enthusiasm for them to make a deal. I think they would make a mistake, but we'll see. I guess time will tell.' 7 President Trump told The Post's Miranda Devine that he is 'less confident' about Iran agreeing to a revised nuclear deal with the United States. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post 7 Trump vowed to not let Iran have a nuclear weapon regardless if it accepts the deal. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post 7 Trump giving Devine a tour of the White House for the debut episode of the 'Pod Force One' podcast. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post Trump's special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been engaging in indirect talks with Tehran for months, with little progress. Witkoff had previously floated the idea of allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium, but only for civilian purposes, an offer similar to former President Barack Obama's 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the US three years later. However, the State Department and White House have been adamant that Iran should not be allowed to enrich any whatsoever. 7 A map of Iran's nuclear sites, reactors and uranium mines. Graphic by AFP via Getty Images Asked by Devine whether he thought China influenced Tehran's decision to resist the US entreaties, Trump said he did not believe that was the case. 'I just think maybe they don't want to make a deal. What can I say?' he said. 'And maybe they do. So what does that mean? There's nothing final.' On Tuesday, the Europe-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group, released an estimate that Tehran has spent at least $2 trillion on their nuclear development program over the past three decades. 7 An anti-American mural is seen near the former US embassy in Tehran on May 20, 2025. Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images If true, the expenditure outpaces the regime's total oil revenue since 1979, which the NCRI estimates to be approximately $1.5 trillion. The NCRI has said that much of this spending has been directed to the recently discovered 'Kavir Plan,' which they believe to be the Iranian regime's new covert nuclear weapons development scheme. 'Tehran's dash to obtain nuclear weapons has intensified,' warned the NCRI in a June 10 intelligence disclosure. 7 Centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran seen on Nov. 5, 2019. Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP, File 7 Trump said he doesn't 'see the same level of enthusiasm' from Iran's leaders on the proposed nuclear deal. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP Over the past several months, the NCRI has revealed four locations they believe to be associated with the Kavir Plan — all four of which are located in or near the north-central Semnan Province, which the regime has designated as a military zone. Kendall White contributed to this story.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Troubled Cook County tech firm used insider lobbyist who was later convicted in ComEd corruption scheme
. As a fledgling tech contractor looking to build its business in the insular world of Cook County politics, Texas-based Tyler Technologies turned to one of Illinois' most well-connected lobbyists to get the job done. In 2016, Jay Doherty not only lobbied Chicago, Cook County and state agencies, he was also the longtime president of the City Club of Chicago, a popular nonprofit civic organization. The dual roles granted Doherty access to the halls of power and enabled him to easily hobnob with decision-makers such as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who regularly appeared at the club's luncheons attended by hundreds of government and business leaders. He was a useful operative in the machine of longtime Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. And he helped fundraise and organize the installation ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, the wife of his longtime friend, Chicago Ald. Edward Burke. At the time Tyler hired Doherty in 2016, there was no indication any of the Tyler executives involved knew their new man in Illinois was also corrupt. Doherty would be convicted in 2023 of conspiracy in a scandal involving one of his other clients, Commonwealth Edison. It was part of a series of linked cases that ultimately ended Madigan's decades-long run as speaker. There is no direct connection between Doherty's work for ComEd and what he did for Tyler. Unlike Tyler's efforts seeking contract opportunities, the ComEd case detailed a vast criminal scheme of bribery and influence peddling as part of the utility's efforts to get legislation passed. But interviews and records about Doherty's work for Tyler and details from his 2023 trial reveal striking parallels in how he repeatedly smoothed paths for both clients, including creating informal interactions at City Club events attended by government officials so the two sides could discuss business outside the office. Tyler executives won't say exactly when they hired Doherty, only that it was sometime in 'late 2016.' Doherty didn't formally report any lobbying activity for Tyler until March 2017. It was a pivotal time for the company. In 2015, Tyler won a $30 million contract to upgrade and digitize the county's property tax system, but in October 2016 the company blew its first major deadline. In a separate contract signed earlier that year, the Supreme Court had agreed to pay Tyler Technologies $8.4 million to digitally connect it to each of the state's 102 county clerk offices. And, despite concerns from some county commissioners regarding Tyler's problems in other localities, the company was trying to score yet a third contract worth $36.5 million to bring the Cook County Circuit Court database into the 21st century. A review of email correspondence, court and contract records and dozens of interviews by Injustice Watch and the Chicago Tribune reveals how Doherty went to work for his new client. He set up key meetings to lobby Tyler critics. He invited the county's chief technology officer — who was then hashing out final details on its second county contract — to speak at the City Club. And, at another City Club event, Tyler's vice president of sales was placed at the same table as County Commissioner John Fritchey — chair of the board's Technology and Innovation Committee and a leading Tyler skeptic. Over the next three years, Doherty lobbied for Tyler as it navigated blown deadlines and pursued new procurement opportunities even as failed rollouts had some county elected officials calling on Preckwinkle — who as board president was invited to speak 17 times at the City Club during Doherty's tenure — to fire Tyler. Tyler was not fired. Instead, what began as a series of three contracts for a total of $75 million has now ballooned to more than $250 million. A decade later, one of the projects has yet to reach its declared finish line, another is reaching completion this month after a yearslong delay, and the third is still in need of fixes — dogged by slowdowns and shortcomings. Tyler touted its Cook County contract wins to become a national powerhouse in local government technology, reporting $2.1 billion in revenues from taxpayer-financed contracts last year alone. After Doherty's three-year run shepherding Tyler through numerous controversies, the company fired him in 2019 following media reports that federal authorities raided his offices and the City Club as part of their ComEd investigation. Doherty's lobbying methods only came to light through federal trial testimony, Cook County Bureau of Technology emails obtained through the open records act, and internal City Club records obtained by the Tribune and Injustice Watch. Doherty, 71, and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. Tyler executives said, through a spokesperson, the company's contract with Doherty required him to comply 'with all applicable laws. Within approximately two business days of learning about the allegations against Mr. Doherty, Tyler ended its agreement with him. Tyler has had no relationship with him since that time. Tyler was not involved in any investigation or prosecution of Mr. Doherty.' The son of a small city mayor in McHenry County, Doherty in the 1980s became an important fundraiser and political consultant for Democratic candidates in Chicago, including members of the Kennedy family and Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. He kept six Rolodexes on the credenza behind his office chair and would flip through the cards, cradling a phone to one ear, one former lobbying associate recalled. In 1985, Doherty began his professional relationship with ComEd, receiving a $10,000-per-year retainer to lobby Washington's City Hall, where he claimed to have saved the utility more than $50 million, according to exhibits and testimony in Doherty's federal criminal trial. Ten years later, he began serving as the unpaid president of the City Club of Chicago, a 122-year-old nonprofit civic organization hosting bipartisan candidates' debates, journalist panels and speeches by political heavyweights from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. But starting in 2011 Doherty began using his lobbying firm, Jay Doherty & Associates, to funnel $1.3 million from ComEd to four Madigan allies for no-show subcontractor positions 'to influence and reward' Madigan, who helped orchestrate passage of three ComEd legislative proposals worth at least $150 million to the utility, prosecutors alleged. The utility admitted its role in the bribery scheme and agreed to pay the government a $200 million fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. Madigan was charged in a connected but separate case in which he was convicted in February on bribery and conspiracy charges. Madigan is set to be sentenced Friday. Doherty was convicted in 2023 of six counts, including conspiracy and falsifying records. His sentencing date is scheduled for August. A relentless political consultant who worked long hours and on holidays, Doherty kept much of his work for Tyler and others out of the public eye. Fellow lobbyists say he rarely contacted targets at board meetings, instead peppering county officials with short emails to arrange private meetings and phone calls. Lobbying records show Doherty's one-man firm had at least 27 clients since 2014, but also show Doherty sometimes failed to disclose his activity as required. In 2021, the city fined him $75,000 for failing to register as a lobbyist for three companies. His trial also revealed how much he leaned into his position as president of one of Illinois' most venerable civic organizations to boost his lobbying clients. In one wiretapped conversation with another ComEd lobbyist who turned government witness, Fidel Marquez, Doherty explained why ComEd made significant charitable donations to the City Club while paying his lobbying retainer, which rose to $450,000 per year. ComEd executives understood the importance of the City Club as a place where Doherty could facilitate informal contacts with government officials, he told Marquez. 'They saw the value of being able to sit next to people in soft situations,' Doherty told Marquez in February 2019 as Marquez wore an FBI wire. Marquez responded: 'No, they, they, they know very, very well the value of a good relationship.' 'Yeah, and, and a soft relationship,' Doherty responded. 'A soft one, yes,' Marquez said. Marquez explained on the witness stand in Doherty's criminal trial that Doherty enabled ComEd leaders to appear as featured City Club speakers, and arranged for them to sit alongside government officials at the head table with the event's speaker, where they could 'get to chat with them for a little while.' At least half a dozen times, Doherty introduced ComEd executives at City Club events without mentioning he was also the company's lobbyist, the nonprofit's online archive shows. It helped boost the revenues of City Club — which raised and spent more than $1 million per year — when Doherty featured government officials who oversaw contracts as luncheon speakers, and brought in his clients to sit with them at reserved tables where they could talk privately, according to interviews and trial testimony. They were the same tactics Doherty used to benefit Tyler, the Tribune and Injustice Watch found. Four months before he reported any official work as Tyler's lobbyist, Doherty began taking steps that would benefit the rapidly growing Texas tech company. Among his late 2016 moves was booking Cook County's chief technology officer, Simona Rollinson, as a featured City Club speaker for the first time since she took the job four years earlier. Emails show Doherty had lobbied Rollinson for several years on behalf of other tech clients. He did not note that work or Tyler when he introduced Rollinson before her appearance at the City Club on Feb. 21, 2017. In her speech about ongoing efforts to upgrade the county's aging computer systems, she took credit for being a tough tech contract negotiator. Without naming Tyler, she declared the company was on schedule to install cloud-based, mass appraisal software for the county. 'We're going live with the assessor's office next year,' Rollinson announced. Her City Club prediction would prove premature. Tyler's revamp of basic Cook County assessor's office functions — called iasWorld — was scheduled to go live in December 2018, but it did not happen until 2021 after years of complaints about delays and cross-accusations of incompetence, government records show. In the weeks before and after Rollinson's City Club speech, final negotiations for Tyler's court contract were also taking place behind the scenes, records show. In emails, county and Tyler officials grappled over remaining sticking points, formed strategies to address board opposition, and discussed their talking points. Emails and lobbying disclosures also show Rollinson was scheduled to meet with Doherty and two of his other tech clients in the days leading up to crucial board votes. Rollinson, who no longer works in government, did not respond to requests for comment from the Tribune and Injustice Watch. On March 21, 2017, Tyler Vice President of Sales Eric Cullison met with Fritchey and separately with tech committee vice chair, Sean Morrison, to discuss their concerns about the pending $36.5 million contract with Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, Cullison's lobbying records show. At a County Board hearing the next day, Commissioner Robert Steele raised questions about problems Tyler was having in other parts of the country. County Court Clerk Dorothy Brown's top deputy, Bridget Dancy, said at the hearing county officials reached out to other satisfied counties, and Tyler had demonstrated they knew how to convert and transfer data. Much of the data, images and talking points Dancy used originated from Cullison, emails show. Contacted by phone, Dancy said all the information she used came from other county officials. After the hearing, commissioners 'returned' it for further study until the next month. Although he had already been under contract with Tyler for months, Doherty registered his first lobbying activity for the company that day, disclosing the meetings with Rollinson, Fritchey and Morrison. Three weeks later, records show Cullison reported lobbying Rollinson at an April 10 'event' the day before a crucial Finance Committee vote. Although Cullison did not report any details about the event, Fritchey recalled being seated at the speaker's table with Cullison at a City Club luncheon. The next day, the Cook County Board approved the court clerk's $36.5 million contract with Tyler. Fritchey voted 'present.' 'It wasn't lost on me that it was one of the only times I recalled sitting at the City Club speaker's table or that I was seated with one of Jay's clients who had a large pending matter before my committee,' Fritchey said in an interview. 'You unfortunately can't help but think that he was leveraging his role at one of Chicago's leading civic institutions in furtherance of his private lobbying activities.' Charities such as the City Club can jeopardize their tax-exempt status if they're used to enrich their own officers, allegations Doherty had successfully faced down years before. In 2009, longtime City Club board member Kathy Posner complained to then-state Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office about Doherty's use of the club's staff, downtown office and power-elite database for his political consulting business. In response to the allegations, the City Club hired three attorneys who once worked in the AG's office to negotiate an agreement with Lisa Madigan's office. The agreement resulted in no violations, but City Club revised its bylaws and corrected its past financial reports — while keeping Doherty on as club president, records and interviews show. 'We investigated the allegations and none of it was true,' said Mike Hayes, one of the three attorneys who defended the City Club against the whistleblower's allegations. A year after the AG's investigation wrapped, in 2011, Doherty began working covertly with associates of Lisa Madigan's father, Speaker Madigan, according to trial testimony. He continued using City Club's offices and staff for his private lobbying work and showcasing his clients at club events, according to trial testimony and court records. He listed the City Club offices as his lobbying business' address; an administrative aide split her time between the club and his lobbying firm; and filing cabinets at the City Club office held folders on lobbying activity by two of Speaker Madigan's no-show subcontractors. 'If the AG had done its job and stopped Jay in his tracks back then, he wouldn't have been able to keep abusing City Club's tax-exempt status for his lobbying,' Posner said in a recent interview. Lisa Madigan declined to comment, but top staffers who investigated the City Club allegations in 2009 said she never meddled in the probe. In an email response to questions, Tyler executives said Doherty was recommended by a 'highly respected and well-established' vendor the company refused to name. The company said the vendor called Doherty 'a resource who could help Tyler navigate the County's complicated operational landscape.' Doherty reported Tyler paid him $45,325 to lobby Cook County officials. Tyler would not confirm his compensation or respond to other specific questions about Doherty's work. Tyler said Doherty's role was limited to Cook County, and he did not 'engage with' the Illinois Supreme Court, which had a separate contract at the same time. By the fall of 2017, Tyler faced serious problems on its Cook County property tax contract. Rollinson by then had become one of Tyler's critics. On Nov. 15, 2017, Rollinson wrote to Tyler 'to express my concern regarding Tyler's management.' Doherty met with her the same day, his lobbyist disclosure reports show. Doherty's last lobbying contact with Rollinson was in May 2018, records showed, but days later, she left her county post and moved back to the private sector. 'Jay, like most lobbyists, was more interested in lining his pockets than protecting taxpayers from dubious business and utility deals,' said Andy Shaw, a former executive director of the Better Government Association where he acted as liaison for City Club whistleblowers. 'This, sadly, is the 'Chicago Way' — on steroids.' .
