For the victims, like Anthony Holmes, who spent 30 years in prison for a 1973 murder he says he falsely confessed to after being tortured, it meant the prospect of relief.

“I don’t care how you try to forget it, how you try to put it to the side,” Mr. Holmes said. “It’s always there and at times it comes out on you. You might break down and start crying.”

As a broad conversation about police conduct and race plays out in cities like Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., Chicagoans, too, are re-examining relations with the police, including episodes more recent than those tied to Mr. Burge.

On Wednesday, the City Council approved a $415,000 settlement with a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted in 2011 by two on-duty police officers, who have since resigned and pleaded guilty to criminal charges of official misconduct. Protesters have objected to a decision last month by a judge to drop charges against an off-duty Chicago police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black woman, Rekia Boyd, in 2012. And many say they are awaiting the fate of a police officer who shot and killed Laquan McDonald, who was 17 and carrying a knife when he was shot 16 times last fall.

Over the past decade, the City of Chicago has spent more than $500 million on settlements, judgments, fees and other costs related to police misconduct, according to a 2014 investigation by the Better Government Association, a nonpartisan watchdog group. Andy Shaw, who leads the association, said the city could have used the money to hire more police officers or teachers, or to balance the city’s troubled budget.