AG Lynch said the investigation found a “pattern of excessive force” within the department and her office, through the DOJ Civil Rights Division, will now oversee an overhaul of the department and its practices.
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Following the report, the Justice Department and the city of Chicago have signed a joint statement in which the nation’s third largest city commits to police reforms under a court-enforced agreement, called a consent decree.
The federal Department of Justice’s final report of its “Investigation of the Chicago Police Department” was released on Friday and, as expected, it sounded very similar to the one it completed on the Baltimore Police Department.
Federal authorities launched an investigation in December 2015 after Chicago police released dashcam footage showing a white police officer kill a black teenager.
This is a breaking news story and LawNewz.com will update the report as more information is available. CPD did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the identity or employment status of the individual by the time of publication, so we are withholding the name.
“Certainly there has to be change when it comes to the Police Department, and that’s what we’re learning from the Department of Justice; but there has to be other changes as well”.
Police departments use stingrays, or cell site simulators, to impersonate cellular towers, essentially tricking a suspect’s phone into transmitting data to the device’s operator.
“Almost without exception”, the DOJ wrote, “officers’ reports of these events were accepted at face value, even where there was contrary evidence”.
Ronal Serpas, who was superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department when it agreed to a consent decree in 2012, says that some of the terms undermined the spirit of reform.
The department does not have “meaningful supervision” of officers, as managers are not held accountable for failing to report misconduct and sergeants are bogged down with administrative tasks. Officers engaged in tactics that made the need to use force more likely or more risky, such as engaging in unnecessary foot pursuits and shooting at moving vehicles, the report says. “It fails to properly collect and analyze data, including data on misconduct complaints and training deficiencies”, said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.
However, the “vast majority” of Chicago’s 12,000 police officers were performing admirably, she added, saying the city and the police department had already taken “encouraging steps”. The announcement will be findings of Chicago police practices. We’ve gathered five of the more significant takeaways from the DOJ’s report, which makes the need for change in Chicago’s approach to law enforcement crystal clear. “It’s what they deserve for putting their lives on the line for us, and that’s what the city deserves when we ask for its trust”, Johnson said. A list of examples of promising behavior by police includes one school example of a patrol officer who “paid for and installed a koi pond at the school where he works because he ‘wanted to do something for the kids here'”. Officials from the Justice Department and city will negotiate a final settlement.
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Emanuel initially resisted calls for a Justice probe of the city’s police department, but later relented.
