The city of Chicago failed to meet most of its deadlines and obligations for enacting court-ordered police reforms during the first months of the lengthy process of overhauling the Chicago Police Department, according to a court report filed Friday.
The first progress report from former federal prosecutor Maggie Hickey says the city missed 37 of its 50 deadlines during the first six months of implementing a consent decree, a court order calling for changes to training, supervision and the way cops use force, among other areas.
The decree contains 577 paragraphs that contain some requirement for the city in the coming years, and Hickey’s first report examined the 67 that held mandates for the first six months of the order. As of Aug. 31, the city had not complied with 52 of those paragraphs, she found.
For example, she wrote that the Police Department had drafted a training bulletin on foot pursuits — which have often led to uses of force — but failed to “incorporate best practices from other jurisdictions.”
Hickey also found problems with the department’s policy on whistleblowing, writing that it failed to mention protecting officers who report misconduct from retaliation. The city’s disciplinary officials also failed to create sufficient plans to train their investigators, she found.
“This first report begins to illustrate the scope of reform needed and details how that change cannot be expected overnight,” Hickey said in a written statement.
Hickey largely held off on harsh criticisms in her 142-page report, and she wrote that the process was progressing as she and her team of academics, lawyers and cops had expected. The report noted that the city had missed some deadlines but then met its obligations soon after. She also credited the city with substantial progress toward some goals that had not been met entirely.
Still, the report cited broad concerns with the city and Police Department’s efforts thus far. She said city officials had been collecting feedback from the public too late in the policymaking process, which “effectively disenfranchises Chicago community members.” She also wrote that the city should increase staff in units that deal most directly with the consent decree, including the academy.
Police officials told the Tribune they intend to add staff in some units heavily involved with the consent decree but did not provide a time frame for adding personnel.
Christina Anderson, the Police Department’s director of reform management, told the Tribune that the delays could be blamed in part on department staff needing to establish methods for working with the monitor and other involved parties.
“All of that work … and getting to know each other and figuring out how we’re going to work together, that took time. We won’t have to repeat that,” she said. “We’ve built the machine and now we just have to run it.”
Anderson said she hoped the city would catch up in the coming months.
Lawyers for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office also is involved in the litigation over the consent decree, wrote in a comment attached to Hickey’s report that the city “could do more to demonstrate that reform will benefit the department, its officers, and the community.”
“At times, the city’s and CPD’s leaders have seemed to approach the consent decree as an ancillary obligation or burden, rather than an opportunity to transform CPD’s relationship with the community it serves,” the filing states. “We urge the city and CPD to demonstrate through both words and action that implementing the consent decree is an urgent priority.”
The city’s halting start is in keeping with the long, laborious slide into court-overseen reform that began four years ago with the release of video of white police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. The footage touched off furious protests and led to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found the city’s police to be poorly trained, loosely supervised and prone to excessive force, especially against minorities.
The Justice Department’s findings led to the court order worked out over the course of more than a year by aides to former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Madigan sued Emanuel to force court-overseen reforms after he wavered on the need for a federal judge’s oversight.
U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. approved the court order early this year. In March, he appointed Hickey to lead the team tracking the city’s progress.
Hickey’s next report will cover September 2019 through the end of February.
The consent decree is being implemented over the objections of the union that represents the majority of Chicago police officers, the Fraternal Order of Police. President Kevin Graham could not be reached for comment.
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dhinkel
