The Justice Department announced Friday that it found a long-standing pattern of civil rights violations in the Chicago Police Department.
“The CPD engaged in a pattern and practice of excessive force, in violation of the 4th Amendment,” outgoing Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a news conference Friday in Chicago announcing the investigation’s findings. She added the department has “severely deficient training.”
Lynch also announced her department and the CPD has begun negotiations for a court-monitored consent decree, which could lead to an agreement on reforms that Chicago police would be mandated to undertake — similar to that announced this week in Baltimore. The agreement has been signed by Mayor Rahmn Emanuel already.
However, the consent decree could take months to complete, if at all, under a President-elect Donald Trump. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee to head the DOJ, has expressed reluctance to using consent decrees. Getting the consent decree with Baltimore and announcing one with Chicago was widely speculated as a goal to be completed before President Obama leaves office.
Lynch shot down speculation that the timing of these decrees is based on politics.
“This is not a political process,” Lynch said at the news conference when asked about the timing of the Baltimore and Chicago announcements.
The federal investigation was launched 13 months ago after the 2015 release of a video showing a white Chicago Police officer shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times, a black teenager who was running away from him. Officer Jason Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder.
Her department found the CPD has systematically violated the civil rights of people through unconstitutional arrests and excessive force, and has not held officers accountable for misconduct. Practices used by CPD officers also unnecessarily endanger themselves, the investigation revealed.
For example, officers shot at fleeing suspects who weren’t an immediate threat, and used less-lethal force such as tasers against people who posed no threat. CPD officers used force to retaliate and punish individuals, as well as used excessive force against juveniles, the investigation revealed.
Black and Hispanic communities were also victims of excessive force by Chicago police, the investigation found.
According to Lynch, the issues stem from inadequate training, poor accountability methods and systemic deficiencies.
The Chicago Police Departement failed to use de-escalation or crisis intervention techniques. It also failed to accurately document, review and discipline reports of police misconduct — something DOJ called “haphazard” and “unpredictable.”
The head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division revealed that the probe was the largest ever.
“It erodes community trust,” Vanita Gupta said Friday, using the finding that a video from years prior was being used as a training method as a blatant issue. “Cops have been forced to do their jobs without adequate training and equipment. These breakdowns breed distrust and undermine [police] legitimacy.”
Emanuel accepted the investigation results on Friday. “We need to provide clear policies and consistent leadership,” he said.
“The Chicago Police Department, the city of Chicago is already on the road to reform, and there are no U-turns on that road,” Emanuel said.
Spt. Eddie Johnson said some of the reporting’s findings are “difficult to read,” and said unconstitutional policing as “no place in the city of Chicago.”
In September, Johnson announced plans to hire nearly 1,000 new police officers in the next two years. Emanuel then announced in December that all Chicago police officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras by the end of 2017.
