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| Chicago's new police superintendent Eddie Johnson, left, shakes hands with other officers after being sworn in by Mayor Rahm Emanuel at a city council meeting Wednesday, April 13, 2016, in Chicago. Johnson who has 27 years on the force, was Emanuel's hand-picked choice to take the top police job. The City Council confirmed the appointment Wednesday in a 50-0 vote. |
CHICAGO
(AP) -- Police in Chicago have "no regard for the sanctity of life
when it comes to people of color" and have alienated blacks and
Hispanics for decades by using excessive force and honoring a code of
silence, a task force declared Wednesday in a report that seeks sweeping
changes to the nation's third-largest police force.
The
panel, established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel late last year in response to
an outcry over police shootings, found that the department does little
to weed out problem officers and routine encounters unnecessarily turn
deadly.
The group concluded that fear and lack
of trust in law enforcement among minorities is justified, citing data
that show 74 percent of the hundreds of people shot by officers in
recent years were African-Americans, even though blacks account for 33
percent of the city's population.
"Reform is
possible if there is a will and a commitment," the report said. But
change must start with an acknowledgement of Chicago policing's "sad
history."
The task force pointed to examples
that spanned generations, including the 1969 killing of Black Panther
Fred Hampton, allegations of torture from the 1970s to the 1990s under
former commander Jon Burge and controversial stop-and-frisk practices in
the early 2000s.
The report "raises consciousness," activist Greg Livingston said. "It shines a light into the darkness."
The
city's new police chief said the department welcomed "a fresh set of
eyes" but was not waiting for recommendations from the task force or
from a civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department before
making changes. Eddie Johnson, an African-American with 27 years on the
force, was Emanuel's hand-picked choice to take the top job. The City
Council confirmed the appointment Wednesday in a 50-0 vote.
"We
have racism in America. We have racism in Chicago. So it stands to
reason we would have some racism within our agency. My goal is to root
that out," Johnson told reporters after he was sworn in.
In
a summary of the report, the Task Force on Police Accountability
recommended replacing the "badly broken" independent review authority
that currently investigates misconduct with a "new and fully transparent
and accountable Civilian Police Investigative Agency." It also
suggested creating the post of deputy chief of diversity and inclusion.
Emanuel did not rule out doing away with the existing body known as the Independent Police Review Authority, or IPRA.
"There's
no doubt we have a lot of work to do," the mayor said, adding that
"people have to have confidence" in whatever agency reviews police
behavior.
"Whether it's IPRA or not, the function needs to be there," he said.
The
mayor declined to talk about specifics in the report, saying he had not
been briefed by the task force or seen the whole report.
The
task force also called out police unions, saying that the collective
bargaining agreements between the city and the unions have "essentially
turned the code of silence into official policy." The code refers to the
reflex of some officers not to report colleagues for misconduct.
Officers,
for example, can wait 24 hours before providing a statement after a
shooting, giving them enough time to get their stories straight with
fellow officers. And not only are anonymous complaints prohibited, the
task force found that accused officers must be given the names of people
who filed complaints.
The head of the police
sergeants' union insisted that union contracts "provide due process in
disciplinary procedures, nothing more." Union President Sgt. Jim Ade
said the idea that the contracts make it easy for officers to lie was
"ridiculous."
Among other problems described
in the report: Some officers in charge of training are teaching while
they themselves are under investigation for a range of alleged offenses.
And there is a disturbing lack of legal counsel for those in custody.
Last year, for example, only 6 out of every 1,000 people arrested had an
attorney at any point while in police custody.
"Stopped
without justification, verbally and physically abused, and in some
instances arrested, and then detained without counsel - that is what we
heard about over and over again," the report said.
The
task force chairwoman, Lori Lightfoot, called the four-month review a
"blueprint for change" and urged city officials and police to forge a
better relationship with the citizens they serve.
"The
pain and the anger and the frustration that people across this city
have articulated to us ... is something that has to be understood, has
to be respected. And it has to be embraced if we are ever to move
forward," she said at a news conference.
The
group conducted more than 100 interviews with community groups, police
officers and outside experts and consistently found a department lacking
a "culture of accountability," Lightfoot said.
The
report was released just two days after the fatal shooting of a black
16-year-old. Police say he was armed, though his mother says he did not
have a gun. Around 100 people gathered for a vigil on Tuesday and some
marched through streets, blocking traffic.
Emanuel,
a Democrat, announced the creation of the task force at the same time
he fired police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in the wake of public
protests over the 2014 shooting by a white police officer of 17-year-old
Laquan McDonald, who was black. A video of the shooting, released last
year, contradicted police accounts that McDonald was threatening
officers before he was shot.
