Changes to be announced in Chicago police training

Police in Chicago are to receive new equipment and training on how to defuse tensions following a spate of fatal shootings of African-Americans by officers, the city’s mayor has said. Earlier this month, Emanuel created a “police accountability task force” that will “review the system of accountability, training and oversight that is now in place for Chicago’s police officers”, a news release from the mayor’s office said. TASERS The Chicago police department, with some 12,000 officers, now has 700 Tasers, which fire dart-like electrodes that incapacitate but are generally non-lethal.

Emanuel has come under pressure from community activists to resign since a video of a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald was released last month.

The release of the video set off protests, forced the resignation of the city’s police chief and has led to an ongoing wide-ranging civil rights investigation of the entire Chicago Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Both LeGrier and Jones were black.

Interim Police Superintendent John Escalante said the greater availability of Tasers would help officers think of force as a last resort, adding that police did not have a “shoot first, ask questions later” mentality.

As we reported, the group waited in the mayor’s front yard as he returned from his vacation in Cuba, which he cut short to address this weekend’s shooting. None of the eight cops who responded to the 2014 incident in which McDonald was fatally shot by police were equipped with a Taser.

Alvarez said while she is urging “a thorough, professional” by the Independent Police Review Authority, her office has also contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

McDonald, who was carrying a knife, was shot 16 times on October 20, 2014 near 40th Street and Pulaski Road, as officers were responding a report of a person breaking into cars.

The city’s main police oversight agency, the Independent Police Review Authority, is investigating the weekend shooting.

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.

Neslund’s letter accuses detectives of repeatedly attempting to get the witness to change her statement because, they said, her story “did not match the video”. Van Dyke, however, pleaded not guilty at a court on Tuesday.

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.

In saying the number of Tasers will be doubled, Emanuel mentioned the McDonald shooting. 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.