Vol. 2, Issue 72: Chicago's Criminal Justice Playbook
At Issue: Draft Consent Decree “Falls Far Short”
A draft consent decree establishing judicial oversight over the Chicago Police Department “falls far short of what’s required,” said Jonathan Projansky of Black Lives Matter, as a coalition of groups that have sued CPD released its comments on the draft on August 14 (Chicago Tribune).
With a brief public comment period now closed, attorneys for the city and the Illinois attorney general are negotiating a final draft to be presented to U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow. Dow will then take comments and hold a hearing on the final draft.
Under a memorandum of understanding, the coalition will be involved in monitoring and enforcing the consent decree. In addition, the groups have the option of resuming two lawsuits that have been put on hold should they decide the decree is inadequate, said Karen Sheley of the ACLU.
Additional issues raised by the coalition include provisions to reduce arrests for minor, pretextual crimes and encourage officers to use “the least intrusive response” for minor offenses, including diversion to community mediation or public health programs; mandate de-escalation with strictly limited exceptions and bar tactics that escalate situations, such as taunts, threats, and slurs; and require CPD to develop a foot-pursuit policy.
In some cases, the draft is less rigorous than existing policy, Sheley said, citing CPD policy requiring officers who witness a use-of-force incident to file a report. That requirement—which Sheley said is crucial to ensure the accuracy of reporting and to counteract the code of silence—is eliminated by the consent decree.
On the “foundational” issue of transparency, the draft consent decree “doesn’t come close to what’s required under the state’s Freedom of Information Act,” said Craig Futterman of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic. “For the community to play a meaningful role and be a partner in the process of reform,” he said, CPD must be required to make public comprehensive data related to civilian complaints, uses of force, and other law enforcement actions covered by the decree.
The draft provides for public comment on new CPD policies but not on a series of planning initiatives and training programs required of the department, Sheley said. It also fails to require the city to share information on officer misconduct with prosecutors and defense attorneys, an issue stressed in the 2016 Justice Department investigation of CPD. “That should be a top priority,” she said.
Noting that nationally, as many as half of people killed by law enforcement have disabilities—and that situations where people with disabilities are unable to immediately comply with orders can escalate unnecessarily—Sheley said the draft should mandate policies and training to improve interactions with people who are deaf or have physical or intellectual disabilities or conditions such as PTSD.
Requirements for the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program must provide behavioral health teams that can respond when police aren’t required and give police officers options beyond arrest and hospitalization, including diversion to health services or shelters, Sheley said. The decree—which currently mandates enough CIT officers to respond to 75% of crisis calls by 2022—should set clear benchmarks for having enough CIT officers to respond to all calls, she added.
One issue remains unresolved in the draft consent decree: the city opposes the state’s proposal to require officers to document incidents where they point a weapon at an individual. The state’s position has been backed by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson (Chicago Sun-Times), State Senator Kwame Raoul, Democratic candidate for Illinois attorney general (Chicago Tribune), and the editorial boards of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.
The requirement “need not result in administrative burdens” and can be handled with “relatively simple technology,” Ferguson told View From the Ground.
As of 2013, 46% of American law enforcement agencies required officers to document every incident in which they drew a firearm, according to a study cited by criminologist Sam Walker. Those departments had significantly lower rates of gun deaths by officers, the study found.
The requirement may cause officers to use more caution when considering using force, but departments with the requirement did not experience higher rates of police officer deaths, according to the study (Washington Post, Public Administration Review).
“It’s shocking that the city doesn’t want to collect this data,” Sheley said. For a department charged with a racially biased pattern of excessive force, “it’s essential for us to have that information.”
This summer, the city paid $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit in which officers pointed a gun at a 3-year-old. This month, another family sued the city, charging that officers pointed guns at their 5- and 9-year-old sons while executing a search warrant at the wrong address (Chicago Sun-Times, CBS).
On August 16, Dow denied a motion by the Fraternal Order of Police seeking to intervene in and overturn the consent decree, noting that the union had turned down an offer by the state to participate in monitoring and enforcement alongside the coalition of community groups (Chicago Sun-Times).
MASSIVE EXPANSION OF POLICE MISCONDUCT DATABASE
The Invisible Institute has dramatically expanded its Citizens Police Data Project (CPDP) to include misconduct complaints against Chicago police officers dating back to 1967. The database is explored in a series of articles at The Intercept (The Intercept).
The searchable records include 240,000 complaints against 22,000 officers over a 50-year period and, for the first time, reveal the names of officers who have fired their weapons. The dataset is complete for the period from 2000 to 2016, substantially complete back to 1988, and includes some data going back to the late 1960s.
The effort to force public disclosure of misconduct complaints dates back more than a decade to organizing and legal action exposing abuse by gang tactical officers in South Side public housing when advocates sought the public release of data compiled in response to civil rights litigation.
In 2014, the Illinois Appeals Court ruled that documents related to police misconduct are public information, and in 2016, the court overturned an order blocking release obtained by the Fraternal Order of Police, ruling that contract provisions mandating the destruction of most disciplinary records after five years do not override the public interest in disclosure (The Intercept).
According to the Invisible Institute, the data reveal that racial disparities in police use of force have increased over the past decade, even as the city’s Black population has declined. Young Black men are 14 times more likely to be targets of police force than their white counterparts (The Intercept).
Nearly two-thirds of all civilian complaints involved officers who received ten or more complaints, yet those officers were less likely to be disciplined than officers with fewer complaints. Only 1.2% of civilian complaints resulted in officers being suspended or disciplined.
While 99% of officers have never fired their guns, 130 officers involved in more than one shooting were responsible for 29% of all police shootings. These officers tended to have civilian complaints filed against them at twice the rate of other officers. Early warning systems can identify officers at greater risk for misconduct, but those implemented by CPD have not been effective (The Intercept).
More than 6% of officers were accused of physical domestic abuse, yet they were rarely disciplined. These officers also received 50% more excessive force complaints than their peers (Block Club Chicago).
Network analysis of officers co-accused in civilian complaints showed that about 10% of officers—including many in gang units—fell into clusters that together were the subject of more than 100 complaints. There is also evidence that those networks of complaint-prone officers negatively influence colleagues. Officers with low complaint rates who were exposed to high-complaint officers went on to show far higher complaint rates on average.
Jason Van Dyke, now charged with the murder of Laquan McDonald, may be one such officer. He received two complaints in his first three years on the force, but in the next year, he was listed on a complaint that also named two officers with multiple complaints. “From that point on, his complaint rate skyrocketed,” and his use-of-force rate increased significantly (The Intercept).
With Van Dyke’s trial looming, a consent decree providing judicial oversight for police reform being negotiated, and a mayoral election on the horizon, the expanded database is being released at a “defining moment” in Chicago’s history, Invisible Institute founder Jamie Kalven writes. In a sweeping overview of the context, he notes that the draft consent decree reflects recent gains in transparency but fails “to go beyond them and build proactive transparency into the architecture” of the reform process, citing the lack of any provision making disciplinary information public on a regular basis (The Intercept).
VAN DYKE TRIAL SET FOR SEPTEMBER 5
Jury selection in the trial of Officer Jason Van Dyke is set to begin on September 5. Van Dyke is charged with murder, aggravated battery, and official misconduct in the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. A final pre-trial hearing is scheduled for September 4 (Chicago Sun-Times).
Prosecutors indicated they will grant immunity to several unnamed officers to compel their testimony in the trial (Chicago Tribune).
Judge Vincent Gaughan will rule on a defense motion seeking a change of venue after attempting to seat an impartial jury in Cook County. The defense has not yet stated whether it will opt for a jury trial, but it could choose a bench trial after jury selection begins.
In a series of pre-trial rulings this month, Gaughan barred prosecutors from referring to McDonald as a “victim” until closing arguments but denied a defense motion banning the word “homicide” during the trial (Chicago Tribune). He also denied a defense motion to bar dashcam video of Van Dyke shooting McDonald (Chicago Sun-Times) but will allow the defense to show an animated simulation of the shooting, despite prosecution objections that it contains “subtle inaccuracies” (Chicago Tribune).
McDonald’s mother appeared in a closed hearing on August 16. Defense attorneys seek to have her testify about violent acts allegedly committed by her son. Under Illinois law, defendants claiming self-defense can introduce evidence of a victim’s violent history, even if it was unknown to the defendant. Gaughan’s ruling on whether she will be required to testify will not be known until the trial starts (Chicago Sun-Times). Several witnesses testifying to McDonald’s past will be allowed.
Meanwhile, attorneys for news organizations have petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court to release court filings that remain under seal, despite a previous Supreme Court ruling ordering Gaughan to stop requiring motions to be filed in secret. They also seek to check on closed-door hearings and lift a ban by Gaughan that ordered one of the attorneys not to speak again during proceedings (Chicago Tribune).
The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression has called for a demonstration at the Cook County courthouse on the morning of September 5.
“BAIT TRUCK” STING SLAMMED
A joint “bait truck” investigation conducted by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Norfolk Southern Railway, in which a truck trailer loaded with shoes was left unattended in Englewood, has faced widespread criticism from community activists, aldermen, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (Chicago Tribune). Charges against three men arrested in the sting were later dropped. Norfolk Southern issued an apology for the operation, and CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson stated that the department would re-examine its use of the tactic (Chicago Sun-Times).
“They want us to respect CPD, and CPD is setting us up,” said community activist Charles Mackenzie, whose video exposed the operation (Vice). In response, rapper Vic Mensa’s foundation organized an “anti-bait truck” shoe giveaway to protest the sting (Chicago Sun-Times).
SOLIS CHARGES RAID VIOLATED SANCTUARY ORDINANCE
An undocumented mother of three was seized by immigration authorities during an August 1 raid on a Pilsen mini-mart conducted by a joint law enforcement task force, which included the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of an investigation into trademark infringement in the sale of apparel (Chicago Tribune).
Alderman Danny Solis (25th) filed a complaint with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, arguing that the raid violated a city ordinance prohibiting collaboration with federal immigration authorities. CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson denied the charge, and a CPD spokesperson stated that the woman’s detention and potential deportation “was never the intended outcome” of the raid and that “we’re not happy about it” (Chicago Sun-Times).
ORDINANCE WOULD REIN IN GANG DATABASE
Retiring Alderman Rick Munoz (22nd) introduced an ordinance prohibiting the Chicago Police Department (CPD) from designating individuals as gang members and maintaining its gang database unless an investigation by the inspector general determines that the system “has a legitimate law enforcement-related purpose.” The ordinance would also require CPD to audit the database, ensure it is “free from racial discrimination,” and provide individuals listed with “notice and opportunity to challenge their designation” (Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune).
Nearly 33,000 juveniles, including some as young as 10 years old, have been listed in the database following arrests over the past two decades. CPD has not disclosed information regarding individuals added to the database after street stops that did not result in arrests (Chicago Tribune).
SUICIDE REPORT DISPUTED
The family of Steve Rosenthal is disputing the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) report that the 15-year-old shot himself in the head following a foot chase on August 17. CPD maintains that no officers fired a gun during the incident (Independent).
VIDEO OF AUGUSTUS SHOOTING RELEASED
Dashcam video of the fatal shooting of Harith Augustus on July 14 shows the officer who shot Augustus telling his sergeant, “He pulled a gun on me,” and incorrectly stating that Augustus had fired at police. The video also shows another officer removing Augustus’s firearm from his holster as he lay on the ground after being shot (Chicago Sun-Times). An autopsy revealed that Augustus suffered gunshot wounds to the back of his head, left shoulder, chest, and buttocks (Chicago Tribune).
GRANTON FAMILY SUES CITY
The family of Maurice Granton has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that the 24-year-old was unarmed when he was shot in the back. Granton was fatally shot in Bronzeville on June 6 (Chicago Tribune).
CASES DROPPED IN CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION
Prosecutors have dropped at least 37 pending cases tied to Sgt. Xavier Elizondo and Officer David Salgado. The two officers were charged in May with lying to judges to obtain search warrants and subsequently stealing cash and drugs during raids (Chicago Tribune).
LAWSUITS CHARGE CODE OF SILENCE ENABLED WATTS EXTORTION
Fifteen men whose convictions have been overturned filed separate federal lawsuits, alleging that the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) code of silence enabled corrupt former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his tactical officers to frame them (Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times).