CHICAGO (CN) — Activists and city residents lambasted the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday, saying in a hearing that the department has resisted reforms mandated by a federal court consent decree enacted almost four years ago.
The consent decree was first proposed by the Illinois Attorney General's Office in an August 2017 federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago, amid popular outrage at decades of abusive police behavior. The CPD has a sordid legacy of racism and civil rights violations, ranging from the beating of protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention, to the yearslong operation of a clandestine torture facility on the city's West Side, to outright murder.
The catalyst for the AG's proposal of a consent decree was the 2014 police killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald, when white police officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald, then 17 years old, 16 times in the back as the teen was walking away from a squad car. The murder prompted a wave of protests once dash cam footage of the shooting was released over a year later.
Besides the video contradicting initial police reports that McDonald had threatened officers with a knife, the fact that it took 13 months for the footage to be released publicly spurred allegations that the CPD and then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel had engaged in a cover-up. The city reaching a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family months before the video was released only furthered public outcry.
That outcry turned into several federal lawsuits, eventually leading to the drafting of the consent decree. U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr., a George W. Bush appointee, approved the document in January 2019, despite opposition from the local Fraternal Order of Police and U.S. Attorney's Office. The decree orders changes on everything from police use of force to foot pursuit policy to anti-discrimination training.
"The decree takes an important step forward in the City of Chicago’s ongoing efforts to repair the damaged relationship between its police department and members of the community whom the department serves and protects," Dow wrote in his opinion approving the consent decree.
The hearing held on Tuesday was meant to provide the court with a progress report on police compliance with the decree, as well as provide city residents a chance to provide their own feedback on police behavior. Per the CPD's reckoning, it is already in compliance with about 75% of the consent decree's mandates on various policies.
On Tuesday morning, city and police representatives pointed out this alleged progress. One member of Chicago's corporation counsel team noted, as Dow did in his 2019 opinion, that the consent decree is meant as "a beginning, not an end."
A representative from the Chicago Department of Public Health also highlighted the development of the city's Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement, or CARE, pilot program. The program sends teams of mental health clinicians and paramedics, rather than squad cars, to respond to mental health emergency calls, and was first proposed in the language of the consent decree. To date, CARE personnel have responded to 457 emergency calls with zero arrests or use-of-force incidents.
Those outside the city and police bureaucracy were far more critical of the progress made since 2019, with numerous speakers claiming that they have seen little tangible change in how Chicago police officers act. Many also accused the CPD of purposefully resisting the consent decree's reforms, telling the court that it must do more to ensure police compliance.
"Our [Black and Latino] clients have not observed measurable changes in how police behave towards them," said Illinois ACLU senior attorney Alexandra Block. She also claimed her clients reported "aggressive and racist" behavior from Chicago cops patrolling Black neighborhoods, and that police used excessive traffic stops in those neighborhoods to project force.
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