Motion for cops to grant arrestees speedy call nixed
Judge denies request by public defender, activists
A Cook County judge on Friday denied a request by the public defender’s office and a coalition of activist groups to immediately make Chicago police give suspects speedy access to phone calls after arrest, saying the circumstances do not constitute an emergency that requires him to step in.
The activists’ request was part of a larger lawsuit alleging widespread “incommunicado detention.” While proceedings in the overall suit will continue, Judge Neil Cohen made it clear at the hearing that he would not be taking the step of issuing an emergency order that merely tells police to follow what is already the law.
“That’s exactly what they’re told to do and are expected to do,” Cohen said. “I am convinced that there are officers who do that. The affidavits seem to tell me that there is a number who don’t. … I will not rewrite the law because I’m not supposed to. Neither are they. They are to follow the law. I won’t issue an order to that effect, but can I say it any stronger than I just did?”
The suit, filed in Cook County court last month, asks a judge to make the city comply with state rules that require police to let arrestees talk to their attorneys and give them access to a phone call within about an hour of being taken into custody.
Attorneys for the activist groups contend many suspects don’t get access to a phone call at all, let alone within an hour or even a few hours.
Attorney Elizabeth Babbitt, representing the city, said police comply with the law requiring them to give suspects phone access in a “reasonable” time frame.
“One hour isn’t always reasonable, one hour isn’t always practical,” she said at Friday’s hearing.
In rejecting the request for an emergency order, Cohen said the case still merits further review, including closer examination of some of the claims of the office of Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli and fleshing out the definition of a “reasonable time.”
But he had stern words about the activists’ request that he order police to stop taking people into custody until they comply with the one-hour phone call deadline. “What about your nextdoor neighbors who want to be protected not just from protesters but (from) the looters, who, by the way, diminished the protesters’ effectiveness?” the judge asked. “Don’t they have a right to be protected? Do you want to strike that request?”
Attorney Craig Futterman conceded that it was his side’s most “extreme” demand and said he would strike that line from their request for an emergency order. But ultimately, he said, “(police) shouldn’t be bringing people into custody if they can’t follow the law.”