JOHNSON DEFENDS PROMOTION CHANGES
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Monday there is “no funny business” to his decision to change the rules governing merit promotions and apply the change to the last two rounds of promotions before putting the new policy in writing.
A former chief of patrol, Johnson said his goal is to make certain that patrol officers— which he called the “backbone of the department”— get their fair share of merit promotions.
And the only way to do that is to allow the deputy chiefs who sit on the fivemember Merit Board and predominantly come from patrol to nominate candidates for merit promotion, the superintendent said.
“They have to physically recuse themselves. ... Not only do they not vote on the person or play a part in the interview. They have to leave the room altogether. They have no idea how their nominated candidate fared in that interview. ... Someone from the inspector general’s office sits in every interview to ensure that it’s done correctly so there’s no funny business,” Johnson said.
“We’re naming who the merit personnel are. We’re putting in also whoever nominated them. If that’s not transparent, I don’t know what is. ... If we wanted to be clever about it, we wouldn’t be doing it thisway. ... If we were trying to hide something, we would not name who the merit promotees are, and we definitely wouldn’t name who’s nominating.”
Inspector General Joe Ferguson, whose office monitors merit promotions, has said the November policy change was made “behind the scenes” without his office “being consulted” or apprised.
Ferguson has said the Chicago Police Department “should not be operating from nonofficial, nonpublic orders,” particularly when it impacts a merit promotion process condemned by officers interviewed by the U. S. Department of Justice as a “reward for cronyism.”
After joining Mayor Rahm Emanuel in welcoming a new class of 131 detectives at police headquarters, Johnson was asked why he implemented the change in a “verbal” order before putting it in writing.
“Usually, it takes time for our verbal orders to catch up with the written process. But we’re trying to get better at that,” he said.