RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The son of former Chicago police Supt. Terry Hillard avoided discipline for his role in a chaotic arrest at a South Side police station after ex-top cop Larry Snelling pushed back on the findings of the city’s police oversight agency.
Officer Dana Hillard, however, remains stripped of his policing powers in another disciplinary case in which he’s accused of bilking the federal Paycheck Protection Program , a pandemic-relief program that was overrun with fraud , records show.
As the younger Hillard faces potential dismissal in that case, he caught a break last month in the other investigation centering around an on-duty imbroglio.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability initially found that he’d broken department rules by failing to de-escalate the situation and engaging in an “unjustified” argument with someone who was arrested while trying to file a report over a crash.
“You came here for our f---ing help,” Hillard reportedly said. “You should’ve called your motherf---ing brother.”
The incident played out at the Wentworth District on Oct. 30, 2023, after a father and son caused an uproar when they were told they’d missed their turn to file the report and would have to wait longer, COPA said.
Hillard and a sergeant came to check on the commotion, and the sergeant began tussling with one of the men while Hillard brought the other outside, COPA said. When the second man returned, he smacked Hillard on the shoulder and was taken into custody during a struggle. Both men were charged with criminal trespass to state land.
Hillard was accused of getting into a “heated verbal exchange." Body camera footage showed another officer had to physically intervene to keep Hillard from getting any closer to the pair, according to COPA.
Allegations that Hillard wrongfully arrested the man or grabbed his neck without justification weren’t sustained, COPA said. But the oversight agency recommended that he face up to a 29-day suspension for hurling profanities and failing to bring the temperature down — allegations Hillard admitted to.
Still, Snelling rejected the findings in a letter to COPA Chief Administrator LaKenya White in January. The then-superintendent argued that Hillard’s actions amounted to a "reasonable response to an escalating and volatile situation.”
Then-Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling at police headquarters in October 2023.
Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times
“COPA noted that Officer Hillard used some profane language during the encounter; however, the use of profanity does not render the verbal altercation unjustified, particularly in the context of managing two aggressive and noncompliant individuals,” Snelling wrote.
COPA then amended its findings on July 15, wiping out the sustained allegations while recommending that Hillard undergo training in de-escalation.
Steffany Hreno, COPA’s deputy chief administrator, said in a brief document that the agency’s original recommendations were appropriate but were altered “in the interests of settlement.”
Meanwhile, City Hall’s inspector general has recommended that Hillard be fired for allegedly getting more than $18,000 in fraudulent PPP funds and filing bogus applications for other pandemic-relief loans.
Those allegations were detailed in a July 2025 report by then-Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, who noted that Hillard had also made “false statements” about those applications in an effort “to obstruct” her office’s investigation.
The inspector general’s office also urged the police department to have Hillard added to the city’s do-not-hire list, according to the report. By then, the department had “preliminarily agreed” with the recommendations and directed the law department to draw up formal charges seeking Hillard’s dismissal.
But, more than a year later, such charges haven’t been made public. Hillard continues earning $119,154 while working in the alternate response section, a unit that handles non-emergency calls and includes cops with disciplinary issues.
At least 36 Chicago police officers have been found to have defrauded the PPP program , according to reports by inspector general’s office.
Hillard didn’t respond to a request for comment.
He joined the Chicago Police Department in 2006 after working as a campus cop at Northwestern University, state law enforcement records show. So far, he hasn't followed in his father’s distinguished footsteps.
Terry Hillard was appointed police superintendent in 1998 by Mayor Richard M. Daley, and he remained in the role until he retired in 2003. He also co-founded Hillard Heintze, a security risk management firm that worked with corporations, government agencies and “prominent individuals,” according to an online biography.
Then-interm police Supt. Terry Hillard speaks to the media at police headquarters in April 2011.
Sun-Times file
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