CPD’s trust deficit and the need for lasting reform
In January 2019, CityHall finally got serious about fixing Chicago’s broken culture of policing— by acknowledging that Chicago could not solve its crisis alone.
The progress came in the form of a consent decree, a binding agreement between Chicago and the federal government, that mandates an overhaul of police officer supervision, training and accountability. The consent decree isn’t a suggestion box. It’s a commitment to reform. If the city runs afoul of the agreement, it risks the wrath of the federal judge tasked with ensuring the order’s implementation.
Worse, if the reforms don’t take hold and stick, Chicago will have squandered its best chance to give this city the Police Department it needs— one that operates professionally and is trusted by all Chicagoans. It is part of the road map to a safer city.
Police reform is a complex, yearslong process,
but it’s important to ask as the two-year mark approaches whether Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Police Department are properly focused on the task. Themayor, whowon election inApril 2019 as a reformer, says yes. She reports progress changing the culture at CPDthrough better training and more transparency.
It’s also true Lightfoot has spent the year battling other calamities, including the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest.
Why question the state of reform? The city missed more than 70% of its deadlines in the first year under the consent decree, according to a June report. Then in September, the Chicago inspector general’s office issued a report laying out the city’s failure to release video and other evidence in cases of excessive force by Chicago police within the 60-day time frame that city policy requires.
Days ago, the IG’s office provided more detail about a police scandal involving former Superintendent Eddie Johnson that reminded Chicagoans howmuch must change for CPD to meet the consent decree’s, and the public’s, expectations. Johnson, found asleep behind the wheel of his car last fall, got special treatment from police at the scene, the IG report determined, while only one officer activated a body-worn camera. A lieutenant and district commander also violated their responsibilities as supervisors.
Meanwhile, Lightfoot’s efforts to give community members a seat at the reform table aren’t inspiring confidence. In June, Lightfoot formed a task force consisting of experts, lawyers, activists and residents thatwouldwork with CPDto revamp its use of force policies. Instead of reaching an agreement both sides could laud, members of the task force are in open disagreement withCPD.
The task force criticized Lightfoot and CPD for accepting only five of the group’s 155 recommendations. “We urge you as mayor of Chicago to live up to your campaign promises and public statements by ensuring meaningful and concrete policing reforms,” the task force wrote in a public letter to Lightfoot. Mark Clements, a member of the task force, wrote in a Tribune letter to the editor that Lightfoot “isn’t serious” about reforms. “Our recommendationswere intended to rectify abusive officer behavior toward residents and serve as a model of reform for policing.”
CPD likely has a sound basis for accepting some recommendations and discarding others. Police officials say some recommendations duplicated use of force policies already on the books. Others had little to do with use of force. But the disconnect between what the task force recommended and what the departmentwas willing to embrace speaks to the larger question of the pace, and seriousness, of reform.
Remember that the push to fixCPD
came long before the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer inMay. The consent decree is rooted in the 2014 killing of LaquanMcDonald by officer Jason Van Dyke, and the subsequent citywide outrage after a videowas released a year later— afterMayor Rahm Emanuel had safely secured another term.
Work on the consent decree goes back years; the Police Department’s troubling habit of tolerating misuse of force, especially against minority residents, goes back decades. No effort by CityHall fully succeeded in stamping out police abuse and a culture of cover-up within the ranks. Oversight bodies meant to root out overly aggressive policing almost always sided with officers. In more than 400 policeinvolved shootings examined between 2007 and 2015, the oversight panel in charge of investigating them ruled the officerswere justified in all but two cases. That questionable statisticwas another driver of much-needed department change.
Lightfoot knows about the need to change
Police Department protocols and culture. She’s a former federal prosecutor who at one point oversawpolice misconduct cases. She spoke passionately about the relationship between police and community this summer, as Chicago joined the rest of the country in coping with the pain of Floyd’s death and its aftermath. In a televised address to the city, Lightfoot said the pace of police reform in Chicago “has been too slowand too narrowly focused.”
OnWednesday, we asked the mayor about the consent decree and pace of reforms. She said the overhaul will take time. While Emanuel, who first resisted the consent decree, predicted Chicagowould finish its overhaul in five years, Lightfoot said Los Angeles took more than 10 years to get out from under its decree.
But as an example of progress, Lightfoot cited Superintendent David Brown’s requirement that tactical officers— members of roving anti-gang units— participate inweekly community engagement projects to earn the trust of residents. Those aggressive officers aren’t liked in many neighborhoods, the mayor acknowledged, so directing them to build relationships is oneway for CPD to turn around its reputation.
“It’s got to be every single day we keep pushing, we keep moving forward,” Lightfoot told us. “Ultimately this is about public safety, but it’s also about having a police department that is best in class: Best in training, best in policing but importantly best in practices.”
The sooner City Hall andCPD can convince the public
that policies are changing for the better, and police behavior is improving, the sooner trust can be rebuilt. Yes, the consent decree process will take years to play out. But Chicagoans have a right to expect progress and improvements day to day too.