Vol. 2, Issue 50: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Community Policing Revamp Proposed
In a report released last week, Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s Community Policing Advisory Panel called for a comprehensive overhaul of the program under a new deputy commissioner for community policing.
Chicagoans can read and comment on the report through an online portal or at two remaining community meetings: Thursday, August 17, at 6:30 p.m. at Sullivan High School (6631 N. Bosworth) and Thursday, August 24, at 6:30 p.m. at Westinghouse High School (2332 W. Franklin).
The panel recommended sustained police engagement with residents through beat meetings and community programs. It also highlighted repeated calls by residents for increased foot patrols and noted widespread sentiment among officers that “beat officers should spend more time out of their cars.”
Additionally, the panel called for community involvement in training recruits and officers, monitoring the implementation of its recommendations, and reviewing major department policy changes. It suggested recruiting community liaisons to introduce and mentor patrol officers transferred to new beats.
The panel emphasized prioritizing youth engagement through “a mentoring model” and proposed the establishment of youth advisory councils both citywide and in each district.
Extensive recommendations were made regarding the training of recruits and officers in community engagement tactics and problem-solving strategies, incorporating scenario-based and situational exercises involving community members.
It also recommended that community policing goals be integrated into core performance measures across all departments.
The Chicago Sun-Times highlighted the panel’s assertion that additional resources are necessary: “The budget for community policing has been insufficient to fully support effective citywide and grassroots implementation,” the panel stated. “The budget appropriation must be increased and maintained at the level necessary to implement the recommendations.”
The panel, which has been meeting since January, called for a detailed implementation plan within 90 days for its review and for an expansion of the panel to include additional community stakeholders to monitor the implementation of its recommendations.
BACKGROUND
The mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) report last year traced the history of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS), outlining its key features, many of which are emphasized again by Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s panel. While community involvement initially “increased substantially,” the task force reported that “results were mixed,” with limited success from beat meetings and a failure to engage youth. Additionally, beat-based policing “fell by the wayside” due to pressure from 911 calls and frequent officer transfers. Budget cuts further undermined the program’s effectiveness.
PATF recommended replacing CAPS—whose “brand is significantly tarnished”—with Community Empowerment and Engagement Districts in each police district, reinvesting in civilian organizing staff, and renewing the commitment to beat-based policing.
The Justice Department report issued in January acknowledged that many individual CPD officers are engaged in community policing today and provided numerous examples. However, the report noted that “community policing as a true CPD ethos and driving force fell away many years ago, and past attempts to restore it have not been successful.” In recent years, community policing has been “poorly funded” and “relegated to a small group of officers and civilians in each district,” existing as a “series of disconnected initiatives” with “little to no involvement by patrol officers and commanders.”
“Infusing community policing throughout city and police systems—from training and supervision to transparency and accountability—while dismantling practices that undercut this effort, will be a lengthy endeavor requiring sustained commitment and focus,” the report stated.
Last year, The Chicago Reader and City Bureau examined “the rise and fall of community policing in Chicago,” revealing a program “hollowed out by years of budget cuts.” From a peak budget of $12.5 million in 1999, annual funding had dropped to $4.7 million the year Mayor Rahm Emanuel was elected. In 2012, Emanuel announced a “revitalization” of CAPS, but funding continued to decline.
Also last year, South Side Weekly and City Bureau interviewed Leonard McGhee, the civilian who organizes beat meetings for Bronzeville’s Beat 211, where neighborhood residents have remained engaged despite the challenges facing community policing. In 2015, they mobilized 150 people to march on a local “hot spot.” McGhee argued that beat meetings are more effective when civilians run them, a feature of the early CAPS program.
Recent articles in the Chicago Sun-Times and The Reader highlight Chicago officers currently involved in youth and community engagement efforts.
IPRA REPORTS
Dakota Bright: The Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) found that the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Dakota Bright in 2012 was “unprovoked” and “unjustified.”
Bright’s mother has called for the firing of the officer who killed her son. Superintendent Eddie Johnson will review IPRA’s findings and determine whether departmental charges will be brought against the officer, who has not been publicly named.
The officer stated that during a foot chase, he saw a revolver in Bright’s hand, but no weapon was found on Bright’s body or in the surrounding area. A revolver was recovered at the location where Bright was initially sighted by officers, prior to an extended foot chase. Bright was shot in the back of the head from approximately 50 feet away as he was fleeing.
This marks the fifth time IPRA has ruled a police shooting unjustified since new leadership took charge in late 2015. Last year, the city settled a lawsuit with Bright’s family for $925,000.
Roshad McIntosh: IPRA has reopened its investigation into the 2014 fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Roshad McIntosh. Police stated that he was shot after pointing a gun at an officer. However, McIntosh’s family has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was unarmed when an officer shot him after chasing him onto a porch. This is one of several investigations that IPRA has reopened since 2016.
Officer Raoul Mosqueda: Superintendent Johnson has moved to fire Officer Raoul Mosqueda for providing false testimony regarding the fatal shooting of Darius Pinex in 2011. Six months ago, IPRA recommended Mosqueda’s dismissal for giving false testimony, though the agency ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove the shooting was unjustified. The Chicago Police Board will review Johnson’s motion. The city settled a lawsuit with Pinex’s family for $2.4 million in December. Additionally, a city attorney was sanctioned in that trial for concealing evidence.
Officer Marco Proano: During a pretrial hearing, a former FBI agent testified that IPRA was initially prepared to clear Officer Marco Proano, who shot into a car carrying six unarmed Black teenagers in 2013. IPRA’s then-administrator, Scott Ando, agreed to extend the investigation after the agent expressed concerns. In August 2016, IPRA ultimately recommended Proano’s dismissal. In September 2016, Proano was charged with federal civil rights violations in connection with the shooting. His trial is set to begin this month. Two teens who were wounded in the shooting settled a lawsuit against the city for $360,000.
Corey Williams: The Chicago Tribune examined questions raised by body camera footage of a 2016 traffic stop, released last week by IPRA. The footage raises concerns about the justification for the stop. Corey Williams, a 20-year-old African American, was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal; within moments, he was taken to the ground, handcuffed, and threatened with the use of a Taser. Charges of resisting arrest, along with several tickets issued in the incident, were later dropped.
Sergeant Suspended: On IPRA’s recommendation, an unnamed sergeant has been indefinitely relieved of police powers—beyond the routine 30-day desk duty following such incidents—pending an ongoing investigation. The suspension follows an off-duty confrontation on Sunday in which the sergeant shot an 18-year-old autistic man in the arm.
LOST GUNS
The Chicago Sun-Times traced a handgun that was turned in to the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in 2004 and later resurfaced eight years later next to the body of a young man who was fatally shot by a Cicero police officer.
Cicero officers stated that they responded to a gang fight and pursued Cesar Munive as he rode away on a bicycle. Officers claimed they shot Munive after he pointed the gun at them. However, a lawsuit filed by Munive’s family alleges that the gun was planted next to his body to justify an unjustified shooting.
Thousands of guns are confiscated by or turned in to CPD each year. According to the Sun-Times, a city audit found that the department lost track of 130 guns stored in evidence warehouses during the 1990s, and four of those guns were later seized during arrests.
BAIL REFORM
County officials called on the Illinois Supreme Court to require judges to set bond amounts that defendants can afford to pay. This demand aligns with one of the recommendations in a report on Cook County’s bond system by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, which was released by the public defender’s office.
A similar order—also recommended in the report—was issued by Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans just days before the report’s release.
Holder’s report found that the county’s bail system violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and its prohibition on excessive bail. It also identified longstanding problems within the county’s pretrial services department, including inadequate training and resources, as well as overcrowding at bail hearings.
The Chicago Appleseed Fund welcomed Evans’ order but emphasized that “as with most policy changes, however, the test of the new order’s effectiveness will be in its implementation.” The organization called for “robust training” of judges, along with public oversight and evaluation of the new policy, noting that “previous bond reform attempts have provided little actual relief.”
Concerns about the implementation of Evans’ order arose Monday when a top county prosecutor engaged in a shouting match with a judge who attempted to hold without bond a nonviolent offender—a woman who went into labor three weeks ago while being held at Cook County Jail for theft—due to probation violations.
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of county jail inmates detained due to their inability to afford bail remains pending.
LIGHTFOOT RECOMMENDED
Following their first substantive meeting in 16 months, Mayor Rahm Emanuel reappointed Lori Lightfoot as president of the Chicago Police Board. Emanuel later stated that he wanted to review the Justice Department’s recommendations for changes to the police board, and Lightfoot confirmed that all recommendations had been addressed. Lightfoot declined to answer questions about whether Emanuel pressed her on her potential candidacy against him for mayor. She has denied any interest in running.
Emanuel was “boxed in by the politics of police reform,” which compelled him to reappoint one of his most vocal critics, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Most recently, Lightfoot criticized an out-of-court agreement Emanuel is negotiating with the Justice Department, calling it “fundamentally flawed” due to its lack of specific goals and enforcement mechanisms that amount to “indulging in fantasy.” Lightfoot is one of the few individuals outside the mayor’s office who has reviewed the 70-page proposed memorandum of agreement that Emanuel submitted to the Justice Department.
SWAT TEAMS AND MENTAL HEALTH INCIDENTS
The Intercept recounts a February incident in which the Chicago Police Department (CPD) responded to a suicide threat by deploying a SWAT team in armored vehicles, which then proceeded to ram the car where the potential suicide victim was seated. CPD SWAT teams have responded to mental health incidents at least 38 times since 2013, and “such deployments are picking up pace” in recent months (The Intercept, year).
ANOTHER WRONGFUL CONVICTION?
New DNA evidence indicates that two men serving life sentences for a 1994 rape and murder were wrongfully convicted, according to a court petition. Nevest Coleman, who discovered the victim’s body, and Darryl Fulton were convicted based on their confessions, which they claim were coerced. A DNA test conducted this year excludes both men as the source of semen found on the victim’s underwear. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office stated that it is conducting an “intense review and investigation” of the case.