Chicago sued for more police oversight
Illinois AG wants court to monitor changes
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to force courtmonitored oversight for Chicago’s effort to overhaul its police force.
The move by the state’s attorney general to sue the city of Chicago — with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s blessing — comes as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed resistance to pursuing such oversight — known as consent decrees — of the Chicago Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
Sessions argued that such efforts are detrimental to police forces.
“As the state attorney general, we are essentially stepping into the shoes of the Department of Justice — shoes that the DOJ has abandoned at this point,” Madigan said in a news conference to announce the lawsuit.
In the final days of the Obama administration, the Justice Department issued a scathing report that detailed deep troubles in the Chicago department.
Along with the report, the Justice Department and the city issued “a statement of agreement” to find remedies to improve policing and to repair the public’s trust in the department.
Soon after being sworn into office this year, Sessions said the Obama administration’s reliance on the court-ordered overhauls “undermined respect for police and made — oftentimes — their job more difficult.”
During the Obama administration, more than two dozen law enforcement agencies — including ones in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and Chicago — were the subjects of federal investigations into misconduct.
Those inquiries often resulted in the consent decrees, which required a federal judge to oversee changes to policing operations.
The debate over a consent decree for the Chicago force comes as the nation’s third-largest city has seen its murder rate skyrocket.
The city has recorded more than 1,200 homicides since the start of 2016 — more than New York and Los Angeles combined.
President Trump has repeatedly pilloried Chicago over the surge in homicides and questioned whether the city’s leaders are tying the hands of street cops charged with dealing with the crime.