Vol. 2, Issue 54: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: New COPA administrator
Mayor Rahm Emanuel named an interim chief administrator for the newly launched Civilian Office of Police Accountability and, apparently short-circuiting the community process recommended by his own Police Accountability Task Force, appointed a political ally to co-chair a Chief Administrator Selection Advisory Panel.
Retired Cook County Judge Patricia Banks will take temporary charge of COPA. Meanwhile, according to a statement from the mayor’s office, Emanuel ally Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th) and Illinois Justice Project director Paula Wolff will co-chair a panel to select a permanent administrator. The mayor will announce additional appointments in the coming weeks.
The Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability called on the mayor to postpone decisions about a permanent administrator until the group completes months of community consultations and releases its recommendations for a credible selection process.
“I’m hoping that, when our recommendations come out, the mayor will review them, slow down, and make sure the community voice is heard—ensuring that the selection process, while the community oversight board is being established, is responsive to the community’s concerns and needs,” GAPA coordinator Mecole Jordan told WBEZ.
She said GAPA will release its recommendations next month.
The mayor’s task force recommended establishing a Community Safety Oversight Board with broad powers, including the selection of COPA’s chief administrator. The board would also oversee CPD, the new civilian oversight agency, and all police oversight mechanisms.
The task force emphasized that, to earn legitimacy, the board’s powers and composition “should be developed with broad public input.” While discussing various selection mechanisms, it explicitly recommended against Emanuel’s apparent choice—mayoral selection—and instead urged that the board be “comprised entirely of community representatives” chosen “through a process that maximizes the board’s independence.”
“Those recommendations are being ignored,” said Northwestern law professor Sheila Bedi, who represents community groups suing CPD. She expressed concern that COPA “will turn into a sham.”
“These recommendations are not just about having some feel-good exercise so people can feel acknowledged,” she said. “They are a critical component required for real accountability.”
ACLU SUES CPD
A lawsuit seeking judicial oversight of CPD on behalf of people with disabilities—who disproportionately interact with and are more likely to experience violence by the CPD—was filed by the ACLU of Illinois, Equip for Equality, and four community groups.
“When people with disabilities are subjected to CPD’s use of force, the role that their disability played is often either ignored or cited to blame the victim,” the lawsuit states. “Without adequate training on how to recognize or respond to people with disabilities, CPD officers react quickly and violently to any perceived sign of non-cooperation (whether intentional or not), escalating to excessive and too often deadly force.”
The lawsuit further argues: “Decades of half-measures and empty promises from politicians show that the city is either unable or unwilling to [reform].”
“It is critical that the interests and concerns of those with disabilities be fully heard and considered in police reform,” said Fred Friedman of Next Steps, a mental health advocacy group that joined the lawsuit. “This lawsuit helps ensure we have a seat at the table.”
People with disabilities “are part of the community and should be served by the police; instead, they are afraid of them,” said Karen Sheley of the ACLU.
According to the lawsuit, Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), touted by the administration last year, has fallen far short of goals. Only 437 officers received the training in the 14 months following its expansion announcement in January 2016. That leaves the percentage of officers certified to handle mental health incidents at about half the level recommended by the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force.
Less than a quarter of calls identified as mental health-related by 911 operators are assigned to CIT officers, according to the lawsuit. CPD has not audited 911 calls or collected data on CIT referrals to evaluate district and shift coverage. Additionally, CPD does not track use-of-force incidents involving people with disabilities.
In revising its use-of-force policy, CPD failed to follow recommendations by the U.S. Justice Department’s January 2016 report, which advised officers to receive guidance on interacting with people with disabilities, Sheley said.
This lawsuit is the third seeking judicial oversight of CPD, following previous lawsuits filed by Black Lives Matter and other community groups, as well as by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The city’s ongoing effort to dismiss the Black Lives Matter lawsuit was a factor in the ACLU’s decision to file, according to a statement. “Neither the city nor the attorney general’s office has explained how affected communities will be able to influence their private deal-making or whether they will have a role in enforcing and monitoring a consent decree,” the statement reads.
“The City of Chicago cannot negotiate this agreement behind closed doors,” said Roxanne Smith, a member of Communities United, which joined the lawsuit. “True oversight must involve impacted communities.”
Meanwhile, “support for the [CIT] training program has dried up,” with staffing levels significantly reduced in recent years, Alexa James of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Chicago wrote in the Chicago Tribune. “That’s unfortunate,” she added, noting that deploying CIT-trained officers reduces the number of arrests and use-of-force incidents.
However, the problem extends beyond officer training, she wrote. “We have to stop applying extremely expensive band-aids and begin the more productive task of building a community mental health system.”
According to James, “It is time for elected officials to take ownership of the broader issues.”
OVERTIME ABUSE
CPD has failed to effectively monitor and manage overtime “to control costs, curb abuse, and prevent officer fatigue,” Inspector General Joe Ferguson reported last week.
Overtime spending by the department has grown from $42 million in 2011 to $146 million in 2016—when it exceeded the budgeted amount by $66 million—and is projected to reach $169 million this year, according to the report. (The Sun-Times recently projected overtime could reach $200 million this year.) The OIG studied regular-duty overtime, which accounted for 56.3 percent of the total in 2015-16; of that category, 41 percent was for special events, 26 percent for court-related duties, and 25 percent for extensions of duty tours.
The report identified several poor management practices. In 99 percent of overtime claims, justification provided on records was either “blank or generic.” According to the report, CPD management acknowledged a number of abusive practices used to increase officers’ overtime payments. One such practice, referred to as “paper jumping” by CPD’s court liaison, involved adding an officer’s name to an arrest report. Officers “described this as an ‘old school’ practice used to accumulate overtime” through court appearances, the report noted.
In response, CPD emphasized that it is transitioning to an electronic timekeeping system and working to update policy directives. However, the report argues that these steps alone are insufficient to “create a culture of accountability.” It further states that CPD “does not fully embrace responsibility for actively managing overtime” and “refuses responsibility for preventing officer fatigue by limiting overtime hours or secondary employment.” Department members covered by union contracts are not required to report secondary employment.
Mayor Emanuel stated that CPD is “going to put in the types of reforms and controls that are necessary” and emphasized that overtime spending has been driven by public safety concerns.
Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former officer, dismissed the OIG report as a “crock of BS” and denied the existence of a “culture of abuse,” according to the Sun-Times. “What are we doing here?” he said. “Are we telling them to be the police or not be the police? To be proactive or reactive?”
BAIL REFORM “UNEVEN”
Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced that nearly 75 percent of defendants are now being released while awaiting trial, up from 55 percent before his order mandating affordable bond levels took effect two weeks ago.
Evans spoke at a press conference where the MacArthur Foundation announced a $1.85 million grant to Cook County to study the impact of bond court reforms and pilot a program offering treatment programs for suspects in nonviolent crimes who show symptoms of drug addiction or mental illness.
However, the Chicago Community Bond Fund reported that its court monitors found implementation of Evans’ order remains “uneven.” According to the group, all four bond court judges “continued to disregard parts of Evans’ order,” with each judge setting some bonds higher than individuals can afford to pay.
Additionally, while Evans’ order mandates bond reviews after seven days for individuals unable to post bail, most of those hearings have resulted in continuances, delaying the review process by two to three weeks, according to the CCBF. The group has called for reviews of 4,000 Cook County Jail inmates who remain detained with bonds set before Evans’ order took effect.
Meanwhile, a class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Cook County’s bond system is moving forward.
FORMER CITY LAWYER SUSPENDED
The Illinois Supreme Court issued a 90-day suspension to a former city lawyer accused of withholding evidence in a civil case stemming from a 2011 fatal police shooting, the Chicago Tribune reports. Jordan Marsh resigned in 2016 after a federal judge sanctioned the city for withholding evidence in a lawsuit filed by the family of Darius Pinex. The city later settled the lawsuit for $3 million.
Marsh’s suspension reflects an agreement with the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which did not find that he intentionally concealed evidence but ruled that he made a significant error after learning about a radio call that contradicted police officers' testimony in the case.
In August, following a recommendation by IPRA, Supt. Eddie Johnson moved to fire Officer Raoul Mosequeda for giving false testimony in the Pinex case. The other officer involved in the shooting, Gildardo Sierra, resigned in 2015. The following year, after reexamining another case, IPRA found that Sierra’s shooting of Flint Farmer in June 2011 was unjustified.
INDETERMINATE SENTENCES
Over 120 aging Illinois inmates, convicted of serious crimes and sentenced under an indeterminate system abolished in 1978, have served many decades and now pose little risk of re-offending. Their fate rests with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which operates “an opaque system plagued by inconsistencies and arbitrariness,” Injustice Watch reports in a three-part series.