Videotaped Beating Dogs Chicago Police

This image from video released by FOX News Chicago shows an alleged altercation between a Chicago police officer, center, and a female bartender, center on floor, at a Chicago bar on Feb. 19, 2007. The officer, identified as Anthony Abbate, 38, has been charged with aggravated battery. The incident is another black eye for the department that has been fighting its perception of brutality and violence on the force since before the days of Al Capone. (AP Photo/FOX News Chicago) (AP)

Critics question whether Cline and others are downplaying the scope of the problem within the department.

They say the two cases illustrate the types of abuse that have occurred for years.

The videotaped beatings come as one-time death row inmates fight in court for restitution over alleged beatings. A report released by special prosecutors last year said police tortured black suspects by kicking and shocking them to get them to confess to crimes in the 1970s and 1980s.

"This is another brick in the wall of unbroken police brutality and violence that has spanned my career," said G. Flint Taylor, a civil rights lawyer for the former inmates. "It is a microcosm of a lot of cases."

Even observers who disagree say the recent incidents have seriously wounded the department.

"There is always in the aftermath a feeling ... that this is a common situation, even if it's not," said Richard Ward, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas who has written numerous books on the subject.

He said the department has vastly improved the training and monitoring of its officers in recent years.

"It always takes longer to rebuild the image," he said.