Chip reports on criminal justice from WBEZ’s bureau on Chicago’s West Side. His investigative and narrative reporting has earned dozens of local and national awards. He is a three-time winner of the Chicago Headline Club’s annual award for “best reporter” in broadcast radio.
Before Chip joined WBEZ in 2006, his base for three years was Bogotá, Colombia. He reported from conflict zones around that war-torn country and from several other Latin American nations. The reporting reached U.S. audiences through NPR, the BBC and daily newspapers including the Dallas Morning News and the Christian Science Monitor.
From 1995 to 2003, Chip focused on immigration and Latin America as editor of Connection to the Americas, winner of the 2003 Utne Independent Press Award for “general excellence” among newsletters nationwide.
Chip was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and raised in nearby Falcon Heights. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In Chicago, he lives with his partner and their daughter on the Northwest Side, where they founded the Humboldt Park Gators, an all-girls baseball team.
Chip Mitchell

Stories by Chip Mitchell
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s pick for top cop appears at City Council committee hearing
The full council could confirm Larry Snelling as soon as next Wednesday.
Courts in counties across Illinois take first steps into a world without cash bail
Illinois is the first state in the U.S. to abolish cash bail. The historic change took effect on Monday, prompting confusion and long days.
Cash bail’s end next week could spark an electronic monitoring surge, backers fear
The law, effective Monday, makes Illinois the first state to ban money bonds. Some supporters of the change worry that judges will turn to EM.
Nearly five years after pleading guilty to a felony, a Chicago cop remains on the force
Joseph DeRosa pleaded guilty to resisting and obstructing police. It’s supposed to bar him from being a cop in Illinois.
At summer’s end, Chicago murders are down 21% from horrendous 2021
Police data show murders are continuing to fall, but the numbers through August remain elevated from what was typical just a few years ago.
A planned Illinois bill would require lawyers for kids in police interrogations
Lawmakers are devising the measure after WBEZ obtained footage of a Waukegan cop leading a 15-year-old to falsely confess to a shooting.
Chicago’s top-cop-to-be talks up violence interrupters and officer wellness
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced his pick to lead the city’s police department Monday.
Simone Biles’s triumphant return inspires young gymnasts
Her comeback in Hoffman Estates, two years since withdrawing from competitive gymnastics, made a deep impression on Chicago-area girls who packed the arena Saturday.
Chicagoans remember trailblazing cop Renault Robinson
A South Side church service Tuesday celebrated the life of Renault Robinson, a former Chicago cop who organized against police racism in the ’60s and ’70s.
This interrogation video shows how Waukegan police led a teen into a false confession
In footage obtained by WBEZ, a detective steers the 15-year-old to implicate himself in the 2022 shooting of a dollar-store clerk.