Bellwood police officer charged with sharing confidential information with crime suspect

A Bellwood police officer appeared in court for sharing confidential law enforcement information with a suspect accused of a crime, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office announced on Saturday.

Michael Davis, 32, was charged with official misconduct.  

The office said Davis, who served with the Bellwood Police Department since January 2025, appeared for his first court hearing on the charges on Saturday and was released pretrial with conditions by the judge, including surrendering his FOID card and any firearms in his possession. 

Prosecutors said that Davis texted images from the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System—a statewide database that details law enforcement investigations—to an acquaintance who was being investigated for fleeing River Forest Police Officers after an attempted traffic stop on July 5, 2025.

During the incident, an officer in an unmarked River Forest Police car followed the acquaintance driving in a BMW before shots were fired at that officer's vehicle, prosecutors said.

Davis allegedly sent the suspect images from the database related to the vehicle used in the incident. It is further alleged that he texted, "Put that car in a garage or something & I would strongly advise to sell it so that you can get rid of those plates."   

The state's attorney's office determined that Davis used his personal number to send the messages and corroborated the time that the messages were sent with metadata from the shared images.  

Davis's misconduct charge is punishable by up to five years in prison. His next court date is set for July 21 in Maywood.