Vol. 2, Issue 45: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Black Lives Matter Sues Chicago
Six African American individuals and seven community organizations, including Black Lives Matter, have sued the City of Chicago, demanding court oversight for police reform—an approach Mayor Rahm Emanuel has sought to avoid.
“The City of Chicago has proven time and time again that it is incapable of ending its own regime of terror, brutality, and discriminatory policing,” the lawsuit alleges, charging that a “pattern and practice of excessive force... disparately and intentionally targets Black and Latino individuals.”
The plaintiffs’ first challenge is to secure legal standing and class-action certification. The city could oppose the lawsuit on those grounds, but even if it prevailed, such a victory would do little to improve police relations with residents and would come at a high political cost, one civil rights attorney told The Chicago Tribune.
An alternative for the city would be to enter negotiations with the plaintiffs and draft a consent decree. “If [Emanuel] is serious about ending police civil rights abuses in Chicago, he will agree—as he already did before—to binding court oversight and enforcement,” said Craig Futterman, one of the attorneys filing the lawsuit.
Emanuel’s floor leader in the City Council, Alderman Patrick O’Connor, told The Chicago Sun-Times that he is concerned about the potential cost of the lawsuit.
However, the lawsuit argues: “The city continues to pay out tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year as a result of its pattern and practice of police brutality. The city has proven that it would rather pay for its officers’ continued use of excessive force than remedy the underlying problems giving rise to the abuses in the first place.”
Earlier this week, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan stated that her office is keeping open the option of filing a lawsuit against the city.
OPPOSITION MOUNTS TO EMANUEL PLAN
The new development emerged as Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to negotiate a memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to guide police reform—featuring an independent monitor but lacking judicial oversight—faced strong criticism from key stakeholders.
Attorney General Lisa Madigan described it as “ludicrous” that the city would negotiate police reform “with a Justice Department that fundamentally does not agree with the need for constitutional policing.” She also deemed it “unacceptable” that the city refuses to release the text of the agreement until it is finalized.
“The only way for Chicago to rebuild the broken trust between some of its citizens and the police is through a transparent reform process that includes community advocates who have pushed for reform for years,” Madigan wrote in The Chicago Tribune. “The city must negotiate with stakeholders to reach an agreement, not announce one after its details have been decided behind closed doors.”
She added: “Reforms must also be enforceable... The city can agree to a federal court process that avoids the unnecessary expense of legal wrangling and instead focuses on getting the right results.”
Emanuel declined to comment on Madigan’s objections.
In December 2015, Madigan requested the DOJ investigation that resulted in a report concluding that a consent decree with judicial oversight was necessary to address excessive force and racial bias in the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
At a media event last week, Emanuel refused to answer questions about his plan, including a reporter’s inquiry about whether he had considered partnering with community groups to obtain court oversight.
Later, Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel responded to the question, telling The Chicago Sun-Times that given the DOJ’s current opposition to a consent decree, “We focused on... how to move forward quickly.” He continued, “Rather than spending a bunch of time in court with lawyers spending resources on litigating issues, we are putting those resources to implementing reform and having the process start immediately as soon as the agreement is finalized.”
“This is not a process that’s going to be finished in a year,” Illinois ACLU spokesperson Ed Yohnka told View from the Ground. “This could take years and years and years. This is really hard work—as the DOJ report made clear. These problems didn’t happen overnight, and they’re not going to be solved overnight.”
A consent decree overseen by a federal judge is “the only real path to police reform in Chicago,” said Karen Sheley, director of the ACLU’s police practices project, calling Emanuel’s proposal “a non-starter for anyone committed to real reform of Chicago’s broken system of policing.” She argued that the mayor’s promises of reform “have not yielded results.”
Two years ago, the ACLU negotiated a legal settlement that included an independent monitor to oversee reforms of CPD’s stop-and-frisk program. The organization’s Ohio chapter also helped negotiate the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, which allowed community groups to be parties to a broad police reform settlement overseen by a federal judge.
Citing calls from reform advocates for public engagement and judicial oversight, The Chicago Tribune’s editorial board urged Emanuel to “stop, rewind, and do this right.”
JOURNALISTS SUE FOR “HEAT LIST” DETAILS”
The Chicago Sun-Times and independent journalists filed a lawsuit last week demanding that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) release information regarding the algorithm used to determine who is included on the department’s Strategic Subject List, also known as the “heat list.”
“We have learned too many times that a lack of transparency into the Chicago Police Department leads to unconstitutional policing and violations of civil rights,” said attorney Matthew Topic of Loevy & Loevy. “It's crucial that the public know how these lists are generated and whether they result in discrimination and civil rights violations.”
Last month, The Sun-Times reported that the list is far larger than previously disclosed, encompassing everyone who has been arrested, been a victim of a violent crime, or been included in CPD’s gang database.
There is no oversight regarding how the list is compiled or how it is used—including whether police and prosecutors, who may not fully understand its scope, rely on it to identify suspects and make decisions about arrests and charges—said Stephanie Kollmann, policy director of Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center, who has analyzed available information about the list.
Kollmann found that up to 85% of African American males aged 15 to 30 living in Chicago are included on the list. She also noted that the only known study of the list failed to demonstrate its effectiveness in predicting and disrupting violence.
ALVAREZ “BOMBSHELL”
When then-State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez agreed to vacate Alstory Simon’s murder conviction three years ago, she disregarded the findings of a yearlong investigation conducted by her top assistants, The Chicago Tribune reports.
Previously, Simon’s repeated confessions had led to the release of death row inmate Anthony Porter, who had been convicted for the same murders just days before his scheduled execution. The case also prompted then-Governor George Ryan to declare a moratorium on the death penalty.
The Tribune’s “bombshell” report “blows up” an effort by “police-friendly attorneys,” who now represent Simon in a wrongful conviction lawsuit, to use the case to discredit the movement against wrongful convictions, Eric Zorn writes.
POLICE MISCONDUCT LAWSUITS CONTINUE
“Chicago’s costly record of police misconduct settlements showed no signs of tapering off in 2016,” when the city paid nearly $32 million for 187 misconduct lawsuits—and spent another $20 million on outside lawyers to litigate the cases, according to an analysis by The Chicago Reporter.
Although the city’s inspector general has called for the creation of a risk assessment office, and the U.S. Department of Justice has urged the city to “review settlements and judgments on a broader scale to spot trends, identify officers most frequently sued, and determine ways to reduce both the cost of the cases and the underlying officer misconduct,” the city has taken no steps to analyze or report on misconduct lawsuits, The Reporter found.
DISCIPLINE DELAYED IN LAQUAN MCDONALD COVER-UP
A Police Board hearing officer announced that disciplinary hearings would be delayed—pending the conclusion of criminal proceedings against Officer Jason Van Dyke—for four officers who face termination for allegedly participating in a cover-up following the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Superintendent Eddie Johnson suspended the officers and recommended their dismissal last August, stating that they had filed false reports on the incident. On Monday, Johnson announced that the officers would be reinstated with pay, though their police powers would remain suspended.
COUNTY JAIL FREED OF FEDERAL OVERSIGHT
A federal judge lifted a 2010 consent decree designed to address a range of abuses at Cook County Jail—including inadequate medical care, detainee safety, and excessive force—effectively ending federal oversight for the first time since 1974.
Sheriff Tom Dart stated that he has invested millions of dollars in increased staffing and training, as well as the construction of a new processing center equipped with medical and mental health treatment facilities.
However, Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the John Howard Association, argued that an independent monitor is still necessary to prevent backsliding.
BAIL REFORM ADVANCES
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced Monday that prosecutors will recommend release without a cash bond for nonviolent, low-risk defendants.
Last week, Governor Bruce Rauner signed the Bail Reform Act, which specifies that cash bail is not necessary for individuals arrested for nonviolent misdemeanors or low-level felonies. The law also establishes the right to a rehearing on bail for detainees who cannot afford to pay it.