A 13-month investigation into Chicago’s police department revealed that the city’s police force has systemically violated the civil rights of residents through use of excessive force. The report, released Friday, shows that these violations have most commonly affected the African-American and Latino residents of Chicago.
Breaking News: The Chicago police have systemically violated civil rights, says a scathing Justice Department report https://t.co/p9ZpixEg9J
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 13, 2017
Furthermore, the report found that officers routinely went against their training and proper protocol:
“We found that officers engage in tactically unsound and unnecessary foot pursuits, and that these foot pursuits too often end with officers unreasonably shooting someone — including unarmed individuals.”
Chicago’s Police Problems Were Well Known
This investigation began after the city reluctantly released the video of a white police officer shooting Laquan McDonald, a young black man, 16 times. The content of the video sparked public outrage and protests across the city.
The Obama administration has made expansive use of these Justice Department investigations. As the national debate over race and America’s police force rages on, police oversight has become imperative. The findings of Chicago’s investigation has now put the city’s policing issues on record. Hopefully this will start a process for necessary changes to be made.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel called this report “sobering,” and stated that the city’s officials hope to correct the problems within their police department regardless of who is in the White House or leading the Justice Department. Eddie Johnson, Chicago’s police superintendent, said that he wants to expand training and mentoring for the city’s officers. As of right now, all Chicago patrol officers are to have body cameras by the end of 2017.
Violence And Police Tensions
Chicago’s well-documented problems with violence and race have been known for years, and don’t appear to be getting any better. In 2016, there were 762 homicides in the city, that’s more than two homicides per day. In fact, this past year the murder rate in Chicago was the highest it’s been in 20 years.
There are no quick fixes to prevent homicides or improve police relations with the public, especially with the racial tensions between police and people of color. However, just the day before this report was released, city officials in Baltimore announced an agreement to improve their city’s police force, following the results of a similar Justice Department investigation. Baltimore plans to increase oversight in the police department, as well as improve training and safety technology.
As hard as some of these findings are to see and comprehend, at least they’re out in the open. The next step is to prevent them from ever happening again.
Watch the video below to learn more about why this investigation occurred.
Featured image credit: Samantha Lotti via Wikimedia Commons/cc-2.0
