Despite scrutiny, Chicago cops shot fewer people in 2015

The emails do not appear to contradict Emanuel’s claim, though they indicate serious concern at City Hall that the video could pose a major public-relations problem.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that Chicago police must be better trained to distinguish between when they can use a gun and when they should use a gun, after a series of shootings by officers sparked protests and complaints that police are too quick to fire their weapons.

In May, Collins cautioned IPRA spokesman Larry Merritt to “tread lightly” when asked for an IPRA interview about the case.

The video shows Officer Jason Van Dyke firing at McDonald 16 times for at least 15 seconds, even after the black teen falls to the ground.

The city’s police department is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the officer who shot McDonald has been charged with murder. “But the bad, and the issues that have come up, specifically in the last two months of the year, we have to focus on as well, and we have to work on correcting some of those issues and addressing those issues and answering those questions that a lot of people have asked of us”.

The emails also reveal that the city’s internal discussion of the situation ramped up after a Slate article detailing the autopsy results, and that a city spokesman helped draft a media response to be given by the Independent Police Review Authority.

A video of the officer shooting McDonald – which was not made public until more than a year later, on November 24 – led to protests and repeated calls for Emanuel to resign.

Police haven’t released the race of the officer or officers involved and haven’t said how many officers fired or what the man and woman were doing before they were shot. “These stories are getting done with or without us”.

Emanuel himself has maintained his opposition to releasing the McDonald video was based exclusively on his desire not to compromise an ongoing investigation.

Collins responded, “I completely agree that we need to engage more, but… we should tread very lightly”.

ABC affiliate WLS-TV reported Thursday that hundreds of emails related to a separate officer-involved shooting, the April shooting that left teenager Laquan McDonald dead.

Escalante cited a 21 percent increase in 2015 in the number of arrests in which a gun was confiscated as evidence that his officers are doing their jobs properly. “And like all of us, they are human and they make mistakes”, the mayor said.

The city released the emails less than a week after police fatally shot two other people: 55-year-old Bettie Jones, who authorities said was shot accidentally, and 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier, who police said was being “combative”.