RAHM: CPD COPPING OUT
Union balks at mayor’s reported comments on the ‘ Ferguson Effect’ at D. C. meeting
Mayor says officers are being ‘ fetal’ because they’re afraid of getting disciplined after they are recorded by the public
Chicago’s police union is taking exception to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s description of Chicago cops as being “fetal” and not proactively policing because they’re afraid of getting in trouble when citizens post YouTube videos of their interactions with the public.
Emanuel’s comments came during a private meeting Wednesday with big- city police chiefs, the U. S. attorney general, the head of the FBI and other law- enforcement and elected officials, according to a Washington Post reporter who was there.
“We have allowed our Police Department to get fetal, and it is having a direct consequence,” Emanuel told U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “They have pulled back from the ability to interdict . . . they don’t want to be a news story themselves, they don’t want their career ended early, and it’s having an impact.”
Dean Angelo, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, took issue with Emanuel’s choice of words.
“I don’t believe the description ‘ fetal’ properly describes anyone working in law enforcement. That being said, I do believe that officers are well aware of being recorded. Members regularly relate to us that nearly every traffic and street stop are being recorded,” Angelo said.
“I would ask those who might believe the women and men of the CPD are no longer proactively policing, who is responsible for removing [ thousands of] guns from our streets?”
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and Emanuel have previously referred to a “Ferguson Effect,” a theory that suggests cops have stopped policing aggressively for fear of being disciplined. It refers to the August 2014 shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury investigated the shooting and did not find any criminal wrongdoing by the officer.
Emanuel’s private comments Wednesday were his strongest to date on his view that Chicago cops have pulled back from aggressive policing. When mayors leave town, they tend to speak more frankly — especially when they’re in a closeddoor session they think is private.
At an unrelated news conference Friday in Chicago, Emanuel told reporters his comments in Washington came after a meeting last weekend with officers from the Ogden District on the West Side. He said that in a “post- Ferguson, post-Baltimore, post- New York” world, officers have sometimes become hesitant to respond to certain situations.
“It’s impacting their judgment of whether they get out of the car or not. And that is having an impact,” Emanuel said. “You can’t otherwise explain why every city across the country, but a few, is experiencing a hockey stick as it relates to both shootings and homicides.”
There were 359 murders in Chicago through Sept. 27 compared with 296 through the same period of 2014 — a 21 percent increase, according to the Police Department.
A Chicago Sun- Times reporter witnessed the so- called “YouTube” effect recently while observing tactical officers working in a highcrime district in the city.
The officers said they always act as if someone is videotaping their actions. When they would stop someone and frisk him on suspicion of having a gun or drugs on him, they would slowly and clearly explain the reasons for it.
They would explain that they have not given up on the neighborhood; the area where they were patrolling was the scene of numerous shootings, and the officers spotted the person doing something suspicious. Their stops often started confrontationally and ended civilly.
“Everything is on YouTube now,” one officer said.
Emanuel’s comments come as the department is having officers wear body cameras in a pilot program in the Shakespeare District on the Northwest Side. The program is expected to expand with a recent infusion of a $ 1 million federal grant.
Officers have told the Sun- Times they don’t necessarily want to wear body cameras, but they’re not afraid of them. They might actually tell the whole story about a stop, instead of a snippet shot from an iPhone that might mischaracterize what happened, they say.
What cops do fear is a recently passed state law that will require them to provide people with a “receipt” including their names and star numbers. Officers believe those receipts will lead to gang members filing more false claims against them.
Some cops have said they’re worried about whether the mayor and McCarthy have their backs.
They pointed to the discipline against one Chicago Police officer — the loss of a week’s vacation — for recently saying to a citizen, in comments captured on a cellphone camera, that Michael Brown “got what he had coming,” in reference to the teen shot in Ferguson.
At Wednesday’s meeting in Washington, Emanuel spoke out about the need to support cops.
He urged the U. S. attorney general to stand up for police officers and let them know she supports them.
“There’s no doubt Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Cleveland, in my view, have put the genie out of the bottle,” Emanuel said. “Unless we deal with backing them up, the gang members know” police “are not putting their hands on them because they don’t want to be prosecuted, whether it be by public opinion or by the court.”
“WE HAVE ALLOWED OUR POLICE DEPARTMENT TO GET FETAL, AND IT IS HAVING A DIRECT CONSEQUENCE. . . . THEY DON’T WANT TO BE A NEWS STORY THEMSELVES.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in private comments to U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch