Will Lightfoot Allow Disastrous New Police Oversight Agency?
October 20, 2019 < >
Here we go again. The powerful anti-police movement is attempting to create another, even more radical police oversight agency.
Will Mayor Lightfoot bow to it?
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Recently, a group holding a news conference at Chicago City Hall gave Mayor Lori Lightfoot an F grade for her failure to support passage of an ordinance created by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA). The proposed ordinance aims to create a new elected board and commission to investigate and oversee the Chicago Police Department.
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The proposed ordinance calls for the hiring of dozens of new officials in the City, would cost untold millions of dollars, and would place numerous limitations on who is eligible for election or appointment to the commission. While police officers are expressly disqualified from having a role, special allowances are made for “. . . people who have direct experience of police misconduct or have an immediate family member who has had direct experience of police misconduct.” Needless to say, you can see what direction this law is headed in.
“We need a police accountability council that is ran by people—we should say who police in our neighborhoods,” said Shasta Jones, a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Too many lives have been lost in Chicago . . . we need Lori Lightfoot to stand up and say, ‘What can I do?’ ”
The bizarre ordinance would turn control of the CPD over to a group who, judging by their website, not only detests police, but also has little or no grasp of the current state of affairs in this city. GAPA would usher in a new era of shockingly bad governance—even for Chicago—but it has created a perfect opportunity to explain to the law-abiding taxpayers in this city what they’re currently getting for their money in the way of “accountability” in the CPD.
Bureau of Internal Affairs
Like most police departments across the country, CPD has an office of sworn members dedicated to internal affairs. In recent times this has included a chief, deputy chief, commander, several lieutenants, and dozens of sergeants and officers. CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs’ duties include investigation of most criminal allegations and employment-related policy infractions such as violation of the residency or medical rules and illegal use of drugs. Internal affairs has built-in credibility in a police department because it is staffed by people who have done the job. Most officers who are fired by Internal Affairs are branded “bad cops” and generate disdain from the majority of officers who take pride in their work. Unlike most police departments, CPD’s Internal Affairs is only a small part of an enormous and inefficient accountability bureaucracy.
Civilian Office of Police Accountability
In the wake of the Laquan McDonald incident, the civilian-staffed Independent Police Review Authority was rebranded the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, and a budget increase was put in place to ensure COPA maintains a cash flow of at least 1% of the Chicago Police Department budget—this amounted to more than $13 million in 2018. COPA has administrative jurisdiction over all allegations of improper search and seizure, denial of legal counsel, domestic violence allegations against officers, and any complaints related to a police-involved shooting or police-involved death. What COPA doesn’t have is people with a strong knowledge of police work, since the COPA ordinance prohibits the employment of former CPD officers or even anyone who has been a police officer within the past five years.
This makes for inequitable outcomes, such as the recent Police Board case against an officer in the shooting of Ryan Rogers, where COPA ruled a shot was fired only a fraction of a second out of policy. Bound by a system that almost always defers to COPA, CPD’s superintendent’s objection to filing separation charges was disregarded. Even more alarming was a recent incident (originally hidden then uncovered by the tenacious work of FOP lawyers) where COPA hired an outside expert on use of force to investigate the shooting by an officer of Betty Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. Although it was encouraging that an organization with almost no policing experts sought out the assistance of one, COPA hid the report after the retained expert found the shooting to be justified. They then arbitrarily decided (obviously without the needed expertise) that the shooting was unjustified. Again, CPD’s superintendent recognized the shooting was lawful and in-policy, but his objection was disregarded and a disciplinary case for separation was sent to the Police Board.
Another cloud hanging over COPA’s legitimacy is that the State of Illinois recognizes the necessity of having expertise in law enforcement to investigate police-involved shootings, and so requires it by law. To fit the definition of “law enforcement officer” by law, a person must enforce the law and protect the public interest “at the risk of the person’s life.” That’s an important factor that gives an investigator of a police-involved shooting legitimacy—they understand what it’s like to risk their life. COPA argues that because they consult with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which employs sworn peace officers, they are in compliance. A weak argument when it is COPA, not the State’s Attorney, who issues findings.
You might assume that GAPA tends to support COPA, however their opinion is COPA is tainted by pro-police politics and therefore needs to have a chief administrator appointed by GAPA’s own commissioners. If you don’t understand how a COPA head appointed by a group of anti-police commissioners is less biased than one appointed by an elected mayor, you’re catching on.
And in case you’re worried that COPA is unable to burn through its generous yearly budget, the office also has the authority to subpoena, demand records, and investigate any possible “pattern or practice” of misconduct by CPD officers. So any money not spent on investigating incidents can be spent investigating CPD as a whole.
Inspector General’s Office
Around the same time the Chicago City Council expanded the jurisdiction and budget for COPA, it created a Public Safety Inspector General position and increased the guaranteed multimillion-dollar budget of the inspector general, with automatic increases tied to the total City budget. Joe Ferguson entered the police accountability media grab in 2014 by investigating the alleged cover-up by detectives in the David Koschman death investigation. While his investigation resulted in the resignation of several high-ranking department members, a recently conducted Police Board hearing illuminated what just about every Chicago Police officer already knew: It makes a very sensational story to believe more than a half dozen of Chicago’s finest were willing to put their livelihoods on the line to protect a nephew of Mayor Daley. The hearing exposed the more boring truth: Cops never cared about Daley’s nephew, but felony review standards at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office are very high. Getting a drunken fistfight homicide charged in Cook County would be less likely than finding two MAGA-hat-wearing neo-Nazis wandering around River North in a polar vortex.
It’s been said that the most dangerous place in Chicago is between Joe Ferguson and a microphone, so it would make sense that his next big investigation would be of the Laquan McDonald incident. Ferguson was a leader of the Police Accountability Task Force and signed the group’s report which determined, without any investigation, that a group of officers filed false reports to protect former officer Jason Van Dyke. No unbiased investigation starts with the lead investigator signing a document declaring all suspects guilty, so you can add the Inspector General’s Office to the list of groups which will never be mistaken for pro-police.
It came as no surprise that Ferguson recommended firing anyone whose name touched the McDonald investigation, including Department members who had such tenuous roles in the incident as forwarding a use of force report and simply reporting the series of events that transpired. A chief, deputy chief, and lieutenant all resigned to enjoy their large pensions, but the remaining officers were fired by the Chicago Police Board. A recent not-guilty verdict in the criminal trial of three members exposed the failings of Ferguson’s investigation, and the Department members have filed suit to have the Police Board Ruling overturned.
The inspector general has even greater discretion with his generous budget to investigate employees, programs, or operations—really any aspect of CPD he wishes to assign resources to. Judging by past actions, any resources spent will be for the biggest anti-police headline possible.
The Chicago Police Board
The Chicago Police Board is a group of non-CPD employees appointed by the mayor to author CPD’s Rules and Regulations, to make recommendations for the position of superintendent, and to be the decider of fact on serious disciplinary matters.
Following the Police Board’s rubber stamp of Joe Ferguson’s conclusions in the McDonald investigation, you might think GAPA is a fan—but you’d be wrong. From GAPA’s website: “As with COPA, at times when the Police Board has decided not to fire police officers charged with the most serious forms of misconduct, there have been widespread concerns that the Police Board’s decisions were politically motivated.”
Even with their history of firing officers for specious reasons, GAPA wants control of this group too, because they see in them another pro-police bias and want to fix that.
Force Review Unit
Citizens can make complaints against police officers in numerous convenient ways, including at a police station or to COPA, by having a supervisor respond to their location, over the phone to 311, online to COPA or the inspector general, or by mail. In case there was any worry that citizens were not willing to come forward with legitimate complaints against officers, there is a dedicated group of people looking at almost every use of force incident in the City. Even routine incidents where no allegation of misconduct is made are reviewed by the newly created Force Review Unit. Dozens of officers have the full-time job of reading reports and watching body camera and other video footage of use of force incidents and providing guidance on training, policy, and when a violation of policy occurs, generating complaints. With a vast majority of officers wearing body cameras (including every patrol officer assigned to the street), the Force Review Unit brings an unprecedented level of accountability for officers in Chicago, and is on the cutting edge of law enforcement accountability across the country.
Consent Decree’s Independent Monitor
On top of this enormous accountability bureaucracy, the last mayor signed the most sweeping consent decree in the history of U.S. police departments. The court-appointed monitoring team is guaranteed just under $3 million a year to review CPD’s compliance with the consent decree, which keeps checks on the entire accountability system. CPD has hired dozens of employees to facilitate compliance and to assist the monitor in auditing and inspecting just about anything it wants. They are tasked with ensuring there are no obstacles to the monitor’s scheduled site visits, surprise spot checks, interviews, collection of records, responses to police shootings, and conducting of public hearings. No police department has ever been under such an extensive consent decree, and as CPD is the largest department ever under one, estimates range from a minimum of a decade to over twenty years before the court determines it in compliance, providing at least nine more years of intense and expensive outside oversight. With millions in personnel and other compliance costs, the estimate for the final price tag is easily north of a hundred million dollars.
GAPA Commission?
If you describe this accountability structure to any police professional across the country, they will likely point out the obvious inefficiency, illegitimacy to the rank and file, and an apparent built-in anti-police bias. How did we get here? CPD officers operate under an often ineffective and incompetent judicial system, which ignores the lessons of New York’s and Los Angeles’s gains in reducing violent crime by holding criminals accountable, and instead is a revolving door for gun offenders. When faced with challenges of our young being undereducated, hopeless, maimed, and murdered and whole neighborhoods being labeled criminogenic, the City cries out for help, and CPD officers answer the call. Unable to fix society’s ills alone, but operating in a town with a history of not facing the root causes of poverty and crime, officers do what they can: police. In doing so they end up interacting more with minorities who disproportionally reside in high-crime areas.
Politicians, the media, and activists are thus given a choice: Support these officers and tackle the underlying causes of crime, or take the lazy and cowardly approach of blaming the police for interacting more with the people they are trying to protect, cry racism at every turn, create more oversight, and demand more firings. For years politicians in Chicago have taken the easy route and thrown vitriol at police and money to anything they thought would show them holding the out-of-control police accountable. And yet CPD officers soldier on. I sleep well at night knowing the cops still come to work and stand up for the weak against evil; but I think my heroes in blue have their breaking point, and GAPA would be it. When GAPA convinces those officers willing to defend others at the risk of their own lives that there is no longer any hope of being treated fairly, the message will finally be heard loud and clear: CPD officers, Chicago is against you.
GAPA not only misunderstands or is disingenuous with its assessment of accountability at CPD, but its entire premise—that Chicago needs a group of elected officials to run CPD—is phony. We already pay for fifty such people. We call them “aldermen.” While some anti-police groups may think she deserves an F, Mayor Lightfoot will earn an A for government accountability and public safety by killing this disaster of an idea and keeping some hope alive for the most at-risk neighborhoods in this city. If Chicago really has millions lying around earmarked for GAPA, there are probably some thoughtful people at City Hall who can find ways to put it to use helping out the City’s most vulnerable in a meaningful way.
October 20, 2019 < >
Here we go again. The powerful anti-police movement is attempting to create another, even more radical police oversight agency.
Will Mayor Lightfoot bow to it?
Recently, a group holding a news conference at Chicago City Hall gave Mayor Lori Lightfoot an F grade for her failure to support passage of an ordinance created by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA). The proposed ordinance aims to create a new elected board and commission to investigate and oversee the Chicago Police Department.
Subscribe
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.
The proposed ordinance calls for the hiring of dozens of new officials in the City, would cost untold millions of dollars, and would place numerous limitations on who is eligible for election or appointment to the commission. While police officers are expressly disqualified from having a role, special allowances are made for “. . . people who have direct experience of police misconduct or have an immediate family member who has had direct experience of police misconduct.” Needless to say, you can see what direction this law is headed in.
“We need a police accountability council that is ran by people—we should say who police in our neighborhoods,” said Shasta Jones, a member of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “Too many lives have been lost in Chicago . . . we need Lori Lightfoot to stand up and say, ‘What can I do?’ ”
The bizarre ordinance would turn control of the CPD over to a group who, judging by their website, not only detests police, but also has little or no grasp of the current state of affairs in this city. GAPA would usher in a new era of shockingly bad governance—even for Chicago—but it has created a perfect opportunity to explain to the law-abiding taxpayers in this city what they’re currently getting for their money in the way of “accountability” in the CPD.
Bureau of Internal Affairs
Like most police departments across the country, CPD has an office of sworn members dedicated to internal affairs. In recent times this has included a chief, deputy chief, commander, several lieutenants, and dozens of sergeants and officers. CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs’ duties include investigation of most criminal allegations and employment-related policy infractions such as violation of the residency or medical rules and illegal use of drugs. Internal affairs has built-in credibility in a police department because it is staffed by people who have done the job. Most officers who are fired by Internal Affairs are branded “bad cops” and generate disdain from the majority of officers who take pride in their work. Unlike most police departments, CPD’s Internal Affairs is only a small part of an enormous and inefficient accountability bureaucracy.
Civilian Office of Police Accountability
In the wake of the Laquan McDonald incident, the civilian-staffed Independent Police Review Authority was rebranded the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, and a budget increase was put in place to ensure COPA maintains a cash flow of at least 1% of the Chicago Police Department budget—this amounted to more than $13 million in 2018. COPA has administrative jurisdiction over all allegations of improper search and seizure, denial of legal counsel, domestic violence allegations against officers, and any complaints related to a police-involved shooting or police-involved death. What COPA doesn’t have is people with a strong knowledge of police work, since the COPA ordinance prohibits the employment of former CPD officers or even anyone who has been a police officer within the past five years.
This makes for inequitable outcomes, such as the recent Police Board case against an officer in the shooting of Ryan Rogers, where COPA ruled a shot was fired only a fraction of a second out of policy. Bound by a system that almost always defers to COPA, CPD’s superintendent’s objection to filing separation charges was disregarded. Even more alarming was a recent incident (originally hidden then uncovered by the tenacious work of FOP lawyers) where COPA hired an outside expert on use of force to investigate the shooting by an officer of Betty Jones and Quintonio LeGrier. Although it was encouraging that an organization with almost no policing experts sought out the assistance of one, COPA hid the report after the retained expert found the shooting to be justified. They then arbitrarily decided (obviously without the needed expertise) that the shooting was unjustified. Again, CPD’s superintendent recognized the shooting was lawful and in-policy, but his objection was disregarded and a disciplinary case for separation was sent to the Police Board.
Another cloud hanging over COPA’s legitimacy is that the State of Illinois recognizes the necessity of having expertise in law enforcement to investigate police-involved shootings, and so requires it by law. To fit the definition of “law enforcement officer” by law, a person must enforce the law and protect the public interest “at the risk of the person’s life.” That’s an important factor that gives an investigator of a police-involved shooting legitimacy—they understand what it’s like to risk their life. COPA argues that because they consult with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which employs sworn peace officers, they are in compliance. A weak argument when it is COPA, not the State’s Attorney, who issues findings.
You might assume that GAPA tends to support COPA, however their opinion is COPA is tainted by pro-police politics and therefore needs to have a chief administrator appointed by GAPA’s own commissioners. If you don’t understand how a COPA head appointed by a group of anti-police commissioners is less biased than one appointed by an elected mayor, you’re catching on.
And in case you’re worried that COPA is unable to burn through its generous yearly budget, the office also has the authority to subpoena, demand records, and investigate any possible “pattern or practice” of misconduct by CPD officers. So any money not spent on investigating incidents can be spent investigating CPD as a whole.
Inspector General’s Office
Around the same time the Chicago City Council expanded the jurisdiction and budget for COPA, it created a Public Safety Inspector General position and increased the guaranteed multimillion-dollar budget of the inspector general, with automatic increases tied to the total City budget. Joe Ferguson entered the police accountability media grab in 2014 by investigating the alleged cover-up by detectives in the David Koschman death investigation. While his investigation resulted in the resignation of several high-ranking department members, a recently conducted Police Board hearing illuminated what just about every Chicago Police officer already knew: It makes a very sensational story to believe more than a half dozen of Chicago’s finest were willing to put their livelihoods on the line to protect a nephew of Mayor Daley. The hearing exposed the more boring truth: Cops never cared about Daley’s nephew, but felony review standards at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office are very high. Getting a drunken fistfight homicide charged in Cook County would be less likely than finding two MAGA-hat-wearing neo-Nazis wandering around River North in a polar vortex.
It’s been said that the most dangerous place in Chicago is between Joe Ferguson and a microphone, so it would make sense that his next big investigation would be of the Laquan McDonald incident. Ferguson was a leader of the Police Accountability Task Force and signed the group’s report which determined, without any investigation, that a group of officers filed false reports to protect former officer Jason Van Dyke. No unbiased investigation starts with the lead investigator signing a document declaring all suspects guilty, so you can add the Inspector General’s Office to the list of groups which will never be mistaken for pro-police.
It came as no surprise that Ferguson recommended firing anyone whose name touched the McDonald investigation, including Department members who had such tenuous roles in the incident as forwarding a use of force report and simply reporting the series of events that transpired. A chief, deputy chief, and lieutenant all resigned to enjoy their large pensions, but the remaining officers were fired by the Chicago Police Board. A recent not-guilty verdict in the criminal trial of three members exposed the failings of Ferguson’s investigation, and the Department members have filed suit to have the Police Board Ruling overturned.
The inspector general has even greater discretion with his generous budget to investigate employees, programs, or operations—really any aspect of CPD he wishes to assign resources to. Judging by past actions, any resources spent will be for the biggest anti-police headline possible.
The Chicago Police Board
The Chicago Police Board is a group of non-CPD employees appointed by the mayor to author CPD’s Rules and Regulations, to make recommendations for the position of superintendent, and to be the decider of fact on serious disciplinary matters.
Following the Police Board’s rubber stamp of Joe Ferguson’s conclusions in the McDonald investigation, you might think GAPA is a fan—but you’d be wrong. From GAPA’s website: “As with COPA, at times when the Police Board has decided not to fire police officers charged with the most serious forms of misconduct, there have been widespread concerns that the Police Board’s decisions were politically motivated.”
Even with their history of firing officers for specious reasons, GAPA wants control of this group too, because they see in them another pro-police bias and want to fix that.
Force Review Unit
Citizens can make complaints against police officers in numerous convenient ways, including at a police station or to COPA, by having a supervisor respond to their location, over the phone to 311, online to COPA or the inspector general, or by mail. In case there was any worry that citizens were not willing to come forward with legitimate complaints against officers, there is a dedicated group of people looking at almost every use of force incident in the City. Even routine incidents where no allegation of misconduct is made are reviewed by the newly created Force Review Unit. Dozens of officers have the full-time job of reading reports and watching body camera and other video footage of use of force incidents and providing guidance on training, policy, and when a violation of policy occurs, generating complaints. With a vast majority of officers wearing body cameras (including every patrol officer assigned to the street), the Force Review Unit brings an unprecedented level of accountability for officers in Chicago, and is on the cutting edge of law enforcement accountability across the country.
Consent Decree’s Independent Monitor
On top of this enormous accountability bureaucracy, the last mayor signed the most sweeping consent decree in the history of U.S. police departments. The court-appointed monitoring team is guaranteed just under $3 million a year to review CPD’s compliance with the consent decree, which keeps checks on the entire accountability system. CPD has hired dozens of employees to facilitate compliance and to assist the monitor in auditing and inspecting just about anything it wants. They are tasked with ensuring there are no obstacles to the monitor’s scheduled site visits, surprise spot checks, interviews, collection of records, responses to police shootings, and conducting of public hearings. No police department has ever been under such an extensive consent decree, and as CPD is the largest department ever under one, estimates range from a minimum of a decade to over twenty years before the court determines it in compliance, providing at least nine more years of intense and expensive outside oversight. With millions in personnel and other compliance costs, the estimate for the final price tag is easily north of a hundred million dollars.
GAPA Commission?
If you describe this accountability structure to any police professional across the country, they will likely point out the obvious inefficiency, illegitimacy to the rank and file, and an apparent built-in anti-police bias. How did we get here? CPD officers operate under an often ineffective and incompetent judicial system, which ignores the lessons of New York’s and Los Angeles’s gains in reducing violent crime by holding criminals accountable, and instead is a revolving door for gun offenders. When faced with challenges of our young being undereducated, hopeless, maimed, and murdered and whole neighborhoods being labeled criminogenic, the City cries out for help, and CPD officers answer the call. Unable to fix society’s ills alone, but operating in a town with a history of not facing the root causes of poverty and crime, officers do what they can: police. In doing so they end up interacting more with minorities who disproportionally reside in high-crime areas.
Politicians, the media, and activists are thus given a choice: Support these officers and tackle the underlying causes of crime, or take the lazy and cowardly approach of blaming the police for interacting more with the people they are trying to protect, cry racism at every turn, create more oversight, and demand more firings. For years politicians in Chicago have taken the easy route and thrown vitriol at police and money to anything they thought would show them holding the out-of-control police accountable. And yet CPD officers soldier on. I sleep well at night knowing the cops still come to work and stand up for the weak against evil; but I think my heroes in blue have their breaking point, and GAPA would be it. When GAPA convinces those officers willing to defend others at the risk of their own lives that there is no longer any hope of being treated fairly, the message will finally be heard loud and clear: CPD officers, Chicago is against you.
GAPA not only misunderstands or is disingenuous with its assessment of accountability at CPD, but its entire premise—that Chicago needs a group of elected officials to run CPD—is phony. We already pay for fifty such people. We call them “aldermen.” While some anti-police groups may think she deserves an F, Mayor Lightfoot will earn an A for government accountability and public safety by killing this disaster of an idea and keeping some hope alive for the most at-risk neighborhoods in this city. If Chicago really has millions lying around earmarked for GAPA, there are probably some thoughtful people at City Hall who can find ways to put it to use helping out the City’s most vulnerable in a meaningful way.
