Sessions: Chicago police plan a ‘colossal mistake’
Mayor, state AG have agreed to go forward with reforms
CHICAGO – Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday called Chicago’s plan to enter a court-enforced agreement to reform its police department a “colossal mistake,” and urged city officials to reconsider.
The comments in a speech before the Chicago Crime Commission come a week after the Justice Department formally opposed a pending agreement, known as a consent decree, on reforms for the 13,000-officer Chicago Police Department.
The city agreed to implement the decree last month after the state’s attorney general sued the police department in federal court. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged that police engaged in a pattern and practice of civil rights violations.
Sessions noted that both Madigan and the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, have announced they won’t seek reelection. He said they were leaving the city’s next leader to implement a misguided policy he called an “insult” to the city’s police officers.
The agreement, which awaits final approval from a judge, would require independent monitoring to ensure that the department was following up on the plan.
Session called the agreement “antidemocratic in nature.”
“The proposed decree would transfer control to two retiring politicians and a federal judge,” he said. “Three people basically to decide how to run this department, and none of them will be accountable to the people of Chicago.”
A spokesman for Emanuel responded by pointing out the attorney general’s strained relationship with President Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly expressed his disappointment with Sessions.
“Will make a bet,” Emanuel spokesman Matt McGrath wrote on Twitter. “MRE and AG Madigan will be in their current office longer than Jeff Sessions.”
Sessions in his remarks spoke of strides the New York Police Department made in cutting its homicide rate from the 1990s through this year.
Emanuel, on Twitter, noted that former NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton visited Chicago this week to learn how police here were using technology and neighborhood policing to fight violent crime.
After suffering 762 homicides in 2016 and 650 last year, Chicago has seen a significant drop in violence in 2018. The city recorded 445 homicides through Oct. 14 – more than 100 fewer than at the same point in 2016 and 2017.
Bratton predicted that Chicago would see further reductions in crime in the months and years ahead.
“Before the AG runs his mouth he should get educated on what he’s talking about,” Emanuel wrote.
Sessions acknowledged progress, but said more needs to be done.
The proposed consent decree would codify dozens of requirements for the department. It would require officials to publish use-of-force data monthly, tighten policy on Tasers and document each time officers drew their weapons.
The Justice Department said in a court filing last week that the decree would impose “unjustified restrictions on police.” The department, which is led by Sessions, urged U.S. District Judge Robert Dow to rejects it.
“The bravery of the Chicago Police Department is not in question,” Sessions said. “Their love for the city is not in question. What is in question, however, is the support and political courage of the elected officials.”