Chicago police to get Tasers and training after shootings

The city aims to inject “some humanity into the work of our police department and police officers”, he said.

The head of the police officers’ union in Chicago said the new policy did not significantly alter the way officers already deal with potentially violent situations. McDonald, armed with a knife, is seen veering away from Van Dyke in the video before the veteran officer starts firing.

Reform plans include proper taser training that will equip 1,400 cops with the device and a mandatory desk-duty sentence of 30 days for any officer involved in a shooting.

Emanuel was asked why he didn’t make such changes in the previous four-plus years in office. But he says Chicago is not unique in having issues between its police department and the community. We should get ahead of this and say something like the following from DOL thoughts?

“Just because you train that you can use force, doesn’t mean that you should”, Emanuel noted.

Protesters have urged Mr Emanuel to step down over a case in which an officer fatally shot a black teenager.

Provided by the city’s Law Department, the emails were given to numerous news outlets that had requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. After training and additional Tasers are put in patrol cars, “You won’t have a situation where officers are calling frantically for a Taser, because they’ll be there in the vehicles”.

The video was withheld from public view for more than a year and released only under judicial order.

Though Tasers and other less-lethal weapons offer an alternative to firearms when dealing with suspects, they have also been linked to hundreds of deaths between the years of 2001 and 2013 in the United States.

Police also said they extended “deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends”.

The mayor and Superintendent Escalante will make their announcement Wednesday at a 2 p.m. news conference outside the mayor’s fifth floor office at City Hall.

Interim Police Supt. John Escalate said in a statement: “I strongly support the mayor’s call for a full investigation of the effectiveness of the current crisis intervention training and de-escalation policies”.

The release of the video set off weeks of demonstrations and forced the resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

The department and the city’s leaders also have been criticized for what many view as a willingness to cover up the misdeeds of officers.

“The people have no trust in the police”. “They are part of the toolbox; they are not the toolbox”, he said.

But the Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://bit.ly/1moWNJE ) Quintonio LeGrier had run-ins with police in the past year at Northern Illinois University, including a charge of battery for allegedly punching someone.

Police said LeGrier was being “combative” before he was shot Saturday.

Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin (D-1st) said police need to respect black people.

Chicago officials are expected to announce changes in police training, including a requirement that every officer responding to service calls be equipped with a Taser. According to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi’s emailed statement, the training will begin on June 1.