Emanuel and Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante on Wednesday will announce a “major overhaul” in policy covering police responses to incidents and the use of physical and lethal force, a mayoral spokeswoman said.
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The city has already announced it will add more body cameras to police equipment and that officers involved in fatal shootings will be put on a mandatory 30-day period of desk duty, compared with the current three-day policy.
Emanuel said trust of the police by the public has “frayed to the point where it is broken”.
On the night Mr McDonald was killed, several officers were heard asking for a Taser before officer Jason Van Dyke opened fire, shooting the teenager 16 times.
There is also no obvious replacement for Mr Emanuel, who has a talent for attracting businesses to Chicago, has taken (controversial) steps to improve the city’s notoriously bad schools and remains one of the best connected people in the Democratic Party establishment.
“There’s a problem that has to be addressed”, he said. The video, showing Van Dyke clearly murdering this teenager, is damning and was swept under the carpet by judges and lawyers for over a year.
Chicago has expanded Taser use before – in 2010 – and the city’s own numbers indicate shootings by police did not drop in the following years, even though police used the Tasers vastly more often.
LeGrier and Jones were shot and killed by police early Saturday after officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance.
After Christmas, Chicago police fatally shot 55-year-old mother Beattie Jones and 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, who was being “combative” toward officers. In Chicago, the killer of Laquan McDonald now facing trial, who had been the subject of 20 complaints of lawsuits yet was still on the force, was the lone shooter among the police officers on the scene. Along with increasing the department’s use of Tasers and training, Emanuel and Escalante said officers will immediately receive more nuanced de-escalation training.
In May, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins complained to colleagues that the Independent Police Review Authority’s did not follow his recommendation on how to respond to a TV station about McDonald.
The letter alleges that police officers tried to get one witness-who was so appalled at the incident that she screamed at Van Dyke to “stop shooting”-to change her account”. But the video showed that the young man, although carrying a knife, was moving away from the officers when he was shot repeatedly. He and his neighbor Bettie Jones were shot and killed by police.
Emanuel insisted his call for reforms was part of a national movement demanding more police accountability.
U.S. Rep Danny Davis (D-Illinois) said police should have respect for the human dignity of every person they encounter.
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The footage set off weeks of protests and led to the forced resignation of Chicago’s police superintendent and a federal investigation of department practices.
