Vol. 2, Issue 29: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Regime Change in Washington
In Washington, D.C., Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions told a Senate committee that he believes crime rates in cities like Chicago and Baltimore have been “impacted” by declining police morale, which he attributed to efforts to hold police departments accountable for the misconduct of individual officers.
The Chicago Sun-Times noted that Sessions could “decide not to implement reforms” recommended for the Chicago Police Department in the Justice Department investigation released on Jan. 13.
When asked by Sen. Richard Durbin whether he would commit to honoring a letter of agreement to negotiate a consent decree between Chicago and the DOJ, Sessions responded, “I think there are concerns with the impact of using consent decrees for policy purposes,” but agreed to “carefully evaluate this agreement.”
A statement on the White House website, posted on Inauguration Day, declared, "The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong. The Trump Administration will end it."
Mayor Rahm Emanuel rejected the Trump administration’s “bipolar” analysis, stating that while “there’s been a reaction to what happened, across the country, ... the choice isn’t just go back to stop and frisk.” He added, “We need our police to have high professional standards and training and support them in those high professional standards.”
In Baltimore, Justice Department attorneys won a postponement for a hearing on a consent decree with the city. Federal and local officials announced the consent decree on Jan. 12, following an investigation launched after the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
"The United States requires additional time in order to brief the new leadership of the [Justice] Department on the case at bar and the proposed consent decree before making any representations to the court," according to the DOJ’s motion.
REACTION TO DOJ REPORT
In Chicago, County Board President Toni Preckwinkle cited Sessions' “very troubled past when it comes to racial issues” and the lack of evidence that he has “transformed himself,” arguing that “the burden is on the mayor to push the reforms that are necessary.”
She called on Emanuel to be “aggressive in his efforts to improve the quality of policing in our communities, particularly Black and Brown communities,” The Chicago Tribune reported. She said she was “pleased that the mayor has said he’ll push ahead,” but added, “I would have wished that he would have responded to some of the difficulties sooner than he did.”
While praising the majority of Chicago’s officers, Preckwinkle stated, “There’s a pervasive racism that afflicts the department institutionally and too many of its officers individually, and [the DOJ] report confirms this.”
The Chicago Reporter has published an annotated version of the DOJ report, providing details for many of the cases it discusses.
Emanuel must “take ownership and lead,” said Police Board President Lori Lightfoot. She called for a team functioning “almost like a SWAT team” with the power to work across branches of the city to address a range of issues, including training, accountability, recruitment, and promotion.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the most troubling aspect of the DOJ report was its finding that officers are not receiving adequate training.
“We owe it to our police officers to give them the best possible training,” he told the press. “And to think that we failed them is a difficult pill to swallow.”
Asked about the need to improve training as the department ramps up hiring, Johnson said, “I don’t think the focus should be on making reforms quick enough. I think we should focus on making reforms the right way.”
The Chicago Sun-Times featured two articles on efforts to improve training at CPD. One article covered an eight-hour training for police officers, paramedics, and 911 operators on dealing with people in mental health crises—presented as an attempt “to address glaring deficiencies laid bare by the Justice Department.” The second article focused on an eight-hour training on procedural justice, presented as an effort “to showcase an aspect of police training [CPD] says it’s doing well.”
MCCARTHY SPEAKS OUT
Former Superintendent Garry McCarthy delivered his assessment of the DOJ report in a meeting with The Chicago Tribune editorial board, where he defended his record—pointing out that the Police Board overturned 75 percent of his disciplinary recommendations—and suggested that the investigation had a preordained outcome and was politically motivated.
As the Chicago Justice Project points out, in recent months McCarthy has become a “go-to source for media,” opening “a floodgate of McCarthy comments about how politicians are putting restrictions on the police and that is responsible for the increase in homicides”—an analysis CJP terms “a false narrative.” CJP also notes that McCarthy is the only law enforcement leader to have led two departments investigated by the DOJ, with findings of widespread constitutional violations in both.
McCarthy also gave a rather odd defense of CPD’s heavy emphasis on street stops during his tenure, which was not a major focus of the DOJ report but received more attention from the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force. His defense was particularly unusual because he was the one who negotiated and signed the agreement with the ACLU to increase data collection and monitoring of street stops—meaning he was criticizing his own policy.
McCarthy argued that African Americans were stopped disproportionately because they live “where crime is happening.” However, the ACLU study that led to the settlement showed that officers were frequently unable to justify street stops under the legal standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court. Additionally, even in predominantly white neighborhoods, Black individuals were stopped in far greater numbers than white individuals.
The fact that a quarter of a million primarily Black and Latino young people were stopped—without being arrested—during the period studied by the ACLU demonstrates that the tactic was used inappropriately, said Ed Yohnka of the ACLU.
PATTON RESIGNS
Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton will be replaced by Edward Siskel, a former federal prosecutor and deputy White House counsel under President Obama.
Patton said he had informed the mayor last fall that he would leave his post after the DOJ investigation was completed.
Days before his announcement, the City Council Progressive Caucus called for Patton’s resignation when it asked the Justice Department to investigate the city’s law department, which has been sanctioned by judges eight times in the past six years for withholding evidence in police misconduct cases.
Patton was criticized for leading legal efforts to block the release of video footage of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald in 2015. He maintained that his goal was to protect ongoing investigations, although federal prosecutors did not request that the video be kept under wraps. Officer Jason Van Dyke was indicted for murder one day after the video was ordered to be released.
Patton also negotiated agreements with civil rights lawyers to establish a reparations fund for victims of police torture, to release records of civilian complaints of police misconduct dating back decades, and to rein in police street stops.
POLICE SURVEYED: A national survey of police officers conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 86 percent say police work has become more difficult following recent controversies over police killings of African Americans, and 72 percent report being less willing to stop and question suspicious individuals. Two-thirds believe protests following police killings are at least partially motivated by bias against police.
Among Black officers, 69 percent say such protests are motivated at least in part by a desire to hold police accountable, a view shared by only 27 percent of white officers. Nearly all white officers (92 percent) believe the country has made the necessary changes to ensure equal rights for Black Americans, whereas only 29 percent of Black officers share this view.
VIDEO SURVEYED: The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) released surveillance video from three cameras showing Kajuan Raye sprinting away from Sgt. John Poulos shortly before Poulos shot and killed him. None of the videos show Raye turning toward Poulos. Poulos reported that Raye had turned and pointed a gun at him, but no weapon was recovered from the scene, and Raye was shot in the back.
Poulos was relieved of his police duties shortly after the Nov. 23 incident. He is the defendant in two lawsuits—one filed by Raye’s mother and another by the family of Rickey Rozelle, who died after being shot by Poulos in 2013.
Poulos is referenced in the DOJ report in its examination of unsound policing tactics by Chicago officers (page 29) and in its discussion of CPD’s failure to maintain a functional early intervention system (page 115), according to The Chicago Reporter’s analysis.
TORTUE LAWSUIT: The City Council is set to consider a $4 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by a man who alleged he was tortured by officers under Cmdr. Jon Burge. Shawn Whirl served 25 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2015. The city has paid more than $111 million in settlements, judgments, reparations, and legal fees stemming from Burge-era torture, according to Flint Taylor of the People’s Law Office.
THIN RED LINE: In a “code of silence” case, six officers have been suspended for giving preferential treatment to a Chicago Fire Department deputy commissioner following a car crash last April, which resulted in a misdemeanor DUI charge two months later.
IRPA ACCESS: In its quarterly report, IPRA stated that police and 911 officials have agreed to streamline the process for reporting police-involved shootings after IPRA complained about receiving late and inaccurate notifications. The DOJ report on CPD called for granting IPRA investigators immediate access to the scene of officer-involved shootings.
STATE COMMISSION: Governor Bruce Rauner’s Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform released its final report, adding 13 recommendations aimed at reducing incarceration and recidivism.