Dropped charges, light fines and a willingness to negotiate tickets with large companies are common themes in the Chicago Department of Public Health’s environmental enforcement over the past decade, the “Ineffective by Choice” report reads. 

“There aren’t a lot of short-term political benefits to aggressively prosecuting companies for environmental violations,” Anthony Moser, board president of Neighbors for Environmental Justice and the report’s author, said. “The political willpower isn’t there.”