Consent decree monitor relates concerns in latest report on CPD, but also hope in new department leader
After more than four years, the Chicago Police Department’s compliance with the federal consent decree continues to drag behind schedule.
That is the most recent assessment of the city’s progress, made public Wednesday by the independent monitoring team led by Maggie Hickey. The latest review paints a not-so-rosy picture of the ongoing reform efforts that were born out of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald nearly a decade ago.
“Overall, the city’s and the CPD’s compliance efforts continue to lag and, after several reporting periods of minimal progress, bring into question the city’s and the CPD’s commitment to implementing reforms in community policing practices as required by the consent decree,” the independent monitoring team concluded.
And yet, Hickey and her team say they remain hopeful. They pointed to recent statements made by new CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling, who pledged transparency as he seeks to balance the department’s policing strategy and reform obligations.
“By prioritizing transparency, the CPD can immediately make progress to address lagging efforts to address consent decree requirements,” the monitoring team wrote. “It is our hope that this emphasis will allow the city and the CPD to better demonstrate the great work that so many city and CPD personnel do every day and better identify and overcome barriers to reform.”
The monitoring team’s latest report gauged the Police Department’s adherence to the consent decree between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023, a period of transition that saw three superintendents lead the department for various lengths of time.
Former Superintendent David Brown announced his resignation from the CPD in March after Lori Lightfoot failed to qualify for the mayoral runoff election. After Brown left, Eric Carter, the first deputy superintendent, led the CPD on an interim basis until he retired in early May.
Once Brandon Johnson was sworn in as mayor, he tapped retired CPD Chief of Patrol Fred Waller to helm the department. The City Council last month confirmed Snelling as permanent superintendent.
During that six-month time frame, the monitoring team assessed the CPD’s compliance with each of the 552 consent decree paragraphs that apply to the department.
There are three levels of compliance: Preliminary, secondary and full. Preliminary compliance signifies CPD has developed a training curriculum; Secondary compliance means training has been implemented; and full compliance means that the policy is fully part of the CPD’s day-to-day operations.
In the first half of 2023, the monitoring team found the department to be in preliminary compliance with 279 of the decree’s 552 monitorable paragraphs. Secondary compliance was found in 160 paragraphs, while the CPD was in full compliance with 33 paragraphs. No compliance was reached in 74 paragraphs, while six more remain under assessment, according to the monitoring team.
To speed up compliance, Hickey and her team wrote, the gap must be bridged between CPD bosses who oversee day-to-day operations and the department’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform.
“As we have noted consistently throughout the reform process and continue to emphasize here, to fulfill these commitments, it is paramount that the CPD increase ownership of reform across its operations,” the monitoring team said. “Specifically, compliance with the requirements of the consent decree relies heavily on increasing the communication and integration of efforts between the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform and the CPD’s Operations (i.e., the Office of the First Deputy Superintendent, which includes the Bureau of Patrol and the Bureau of Counter-terrorism). The CPD’s Operations personnel rarely participate in regular consent decree meetings regarding policy and training, and we would like to hear their voices in the reform process.”
