CHICAGO (AP) — The surprise decision by prosecutors to drop charges against Jussie Smollett has angered Chicago's police superintendent and mayor and focused unwanted attention on the city's police department, which is struggling to reduce violent crime.

Police and prosecutors continue to believe that the former "Empire" cast member hired two men to fake a racist and anti-gay attack and then lied about it.

But the charges were dropped without obliging Smollett to admit wrongdoing, typically a requirement in such cases.

Instead, he stood in front of reporters Tuesday and insisted that he'd done nothing wrong and had told the truth.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called it a "whitewash of justice."