A former high-ranking Chicago cop has sued the city, police Supt. Larry Snelling and other officials alleging he was added to the city’s do-not-hire list based on bogus information about his disciplinary record.
Michael Barz, who rose to the rank of deputy chief, filed the defamation lawsuit last month in federal court in Chicago, claiming the move tarnished his reputation and contributed to the “loss of the professional dignity earned through nearly thirty years of decorated service.”
The lawsuit highlights a memo sent to Snelling on April 26, 2025, by Joy Brown, another defendant in the case who serves as director of human resources for the city’s Office of Public Safety Administration. The memo recommended that Barz be added to the do-not-hire list, focusing on two disciplinary investigations that purportedly led to recommendations for 15-day suspensions.
However, Barz never faced a sustained disciplinary complaint over his career, including in those two cases, the suit holds. And those suspensions weren’t imposed.
Still, Snelling signed the memo less than a week later — on April 30, 2025 — placing Barz on the do-not-hire list and noting he was “retiring in lieu of discharge for misconduct,” according to the lawsuit. But that same day, Snelling signed an “irreconcilable” form saying Barz was in good standing and was “eligible for retirement credentials.”
By May 27, 2025, the city’s Department of Human Resources formally prohibited Barz from being rehired by the police department and noted in his personnel file that he had retired instead of being fired, the lawsuit states.
Barz sought to be removed from the do-not-hire list that September, submitting his disciplinary record showing he had never been the subject of an investigation with sustained findings, according to the suit. His appeal was initially denied, but the decision was later reversed on April 15 after Barz’s attorney got involved. The lawsuit was filed April 24.
Human Resources Commissioner Sandra Blakemore, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, acknowledged that same month that the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs “had provided inaccurate information” about Barz’s disciplinary history and formally requested that he be removed from the do-not-hire list. Barz previously worked as a BIA investigator.
Barz is seeking compensatory damages, an order to correct his personnel record to show he retired in good standing and for the city to stop sharing the do-not-hire memo in response to public records requests.
Barz’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Chicago’s Law Department said the city hadn’t been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Barz was recently at the center of a whistleblower lawsuit that was settled for nearly $1 million, although he wasn’t named as a defendant.
Lt. Franklin Paz Jr. alleged that Barz pushed an illegal traffic stop quota as deputy chief of the Community Safety Team, a specialized unit championed by former police Supt. David Brown. City Hall’s former watchdog later pushed to have Brown added to the do-not-hire list after he refused to cooperate with an investigation stemming from a drug bust involving a police chief’s car.
Barz previously told the Sun-Times that the allegations in the lawsuit “were never proven true.”
He was reassigned from deputy chief to commander and ultimately retired in 2025 as a captain.
