An imperfect but necessary path to police reform.
If Chicagoans are serious about stemming violence while also promoting necessary police reform, news that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is getting the Justice Department to agree to police oversight by an independent monitor should be a relief.
On the heels of Jeff Sessions being named director of the Department of Justice, January’s court- ordered consent decree agreement between outgoing director Loretta Lynch and Chicago may have been eye opening and important, but itwas dead on arrival. Nobody truly believed that Mr. Sessions— who with his boss Donald Trump has repeatedly defended police use of force— was going to actually back a court- ordered decree to curtail it. Itwas a non- starter.
So how was Chicago supposed to continue on its path of necessary police reform? While it’s shameful for the current Justice Department to dismiss the prior department’s findings of systemic abuse, reality- based decisions still need to be made locally in order to keep the police reform momentum on track. Given the urgent need for trustbuilding between communities and the Chicago Police Department— for our security and for the safety of our officers— it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep this moving forward. An agreement to install an independent monitor, even without court powers, commits a skeptical DOJ to acknowledging needed reform while still holding Chicago and our police department accountable and engaged in the process they’ve already started. Nobody should take this move for granted.
Importantly, we’ve seen this model work effectively before. In the mid- 1990s, Washington, D. C. police shot and killed substantially more people than the police in Chicago and were involved in unusually high numbers of shooting incidents overall. To address this, their then- mayor and police chief sought help from the Justice Department, which found major deficiencies in policies and police training regarding the use of force. Citing the need for massive reform, local D. C. officials and the DOJ agreed to select an independent monitoring committee to oversee the police department. Starting in 2002, this committee ensured that real reforms were implemented and proved successful in turning the D. C. police department around. Itwas so effective that the head of the committee, Michael Bromwich, made the recommendation to end the agreement earlier than expected in 2008.
In the aftermath of Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Laquan McDonald, there can be no turning back on ensuring proper training and reforms for law enforcement in this country. Systemic abuses and racial discrimination are unacceptable from those we need to trust most, and the backlash against these incidents has been painfully evident as shootings since then have spiked in major cities across the country. Change is obviously needed. With both our mayor and police chief committed to reform, Chicago can— and must— push the DOJ for an oversight agreement.
A court- ordered consent decree certainly would have had more teeth, yet, we have towork in the realworld with a newpresident. This agreement is as good as the Mayor was going to get. Instead of pining on the sidelines for a court- ordered decree that was never going to happen, we should recognize the value of working across the aisle to actively move the ball forward — a powerful lesson these days for our terminally stuck state and federal lawmakers.
It’s called finding away to work together in order to get necessary things done. Interesting concept, right?
Instead of pining for a court- ordered decree that was never going to happen, we should recognize the value of working across the aisle to actively move the ball forward.
Alana G. Baum is a clinical psychologist and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.