CHICAGO
(AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department is expected to launch a
wide-ranging investigation this week into the patterns and practices of
the Chicago Police Department after recent protests following the
release of a video showing a white Chicago police officer shooting a
black teenager 16 times, a person familiar with the matter told The
Associated Press on Sunday.
The person said
the Justice Department is expected to make the announcement of a civil
rights investigation this week. The person was not authorized to discuss
the investigation publicly because it has not yet been announced and
only spoke the AP on condition of anonymity.
The
civil rights probe follows others recently in Baltimore and Ferguson,
Missouri, and it comes as the police department and Mayor Rahm Emanuel
are under intense scrutiny over their handling of the October 2014 death
of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with
first-degree murder Nov. 24, more than a year after the killing and
just hours before the release of police dashboard camera footage showing
the officer shooting the teenager.
The video
shows McDonald veering away from officers on a four-lane street when Van
Dyke, seconds after exiting his squad car, opens fire from close range.
The officer continues shooting after McDonald crumples to the ground
and is barely moving. The video does not include sound, which
authorities have not explained.
The Chicago
City Council signed off on a $5 million settlement with McDonald's
family even before the family filed a lawsuit and city officials fought
in court for months to keep the video from being released publicly. The
city's early efforts to suppress its release coincided with Emanuel's
re-election campaign, when the mayor was seeking African-American votes
in a tight race.
Since the release of the
video, Emanuel forced Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to resign and
formed a task force to examine the department in an effort to calm the
city and deal with the most serious crisis of his administration.
But
the pressure on the mayor has not diminished. The calls for the mayor
to resign - something he said he won't do - have grown louder from
protesters in the city, including more than 200 people who shouted that
he step down during a Sunday afternoon march in downtown Chicago.
Protesters counted to 16 during the march, a number that has taken on a
symbolic significance since the demonstrations began.
Emanuel
initially said a federal civil rights investigation of Chicago police
tactics would be "misguided" because the U.S. Attorney's office in
Chicago was already investigating the incident. But Emanuel later
reversed course and said he would welcome the Justice Department's
involvement - something that politicians including Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Illinois Attorney General
Lisa Madigan have called for.
On Friday,
Chicago released hundreds of pages that show police officers initially
reported a very different version of the encounter with McDonald than
the video shows. That further angered activists and protesters, who were
already accusing the city of covering up what really happened the night
McDonald was killed.
Neither Emanuel's office
nor the police department immediately responded to a request for
comment on reports of a federal investigation.
The
Justice Department in the last six years has opened more than 20
investigations of police departments. In March, the department released a
scathing report of the Ferguson, Missouri, police force that found
pervasive civil rights abuses, and in May, it reached a settlement with
Cleveland police that called for sweeping improvements - including to
that department's use of force policies. It opened an investigation of
Baltimore police in May after demonstrations there turned violent in
response to the death of a black man in police custody.
Civil
rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson said he was pleased with the
decision to investigate Chicago. Jackson said he hoped that the
investigation would focus not only on the police department, but on
Emanuel's office and the Cook County State's Attorney's office, which he
and others have criticized for taking so long to bring charges against
Van Dyke.
"All three of them - the police, City Hall and the prosecutor's office - are suspect," Jackson said. "We cannot trust them."
