All Chicago Police Ordered To Carry Tasers

The Chicago Police Department studied other police departments around the country to shape its new policing guidelines, Police Superintendent John Escalante said Wednesday, including the NY and Seattle police departments. LeGrier was killed after police said he was threatening his father with a baseball bat, according to WMAQ, the NBC affiliate in Chicago.

The Chicago mayor’s office, police and the body that investigates police shootings closely coordinated their response in the months after a white officer fatally shot a black teenager in 2014, emails released Thursday revealed.

The footage sparked days of street demonstrations, the forced resignation of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and a broad federal civil rights investigation of the Police Department’s practices and how allegations of officer misconduct are handled.

Van Dyke, who faces six first-degree murder counts, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Ted Pearson, one of the leaders of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, noted that Emanuel made leadership changes after the release of the McDonald video and gave a speech before the City Council in which he apologized, appearing at times to be near tears.

The city of Chicago has released hundreds of emails related to the fatal shooting of an African American teenager by a Chicago police officer in October 2014.

The video was withheld from public view for more than a year and released only under judicial order. Escalante said the aim was to discourage aggression and confrontation.

“There’s a difference between whether someone can use a gun and when they should use a gun”, Emanuel said at the news conference.

The department, with more than 12,000 officers, has been under siege in recent months for a series of fatal shootings.

A community activist says he’s skeptical changes Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing for Chicago police will reverse decades of mistrust between officers and residents.

Tasers are seen as an alternative to guns because they allow police to forcefully subdue a suspect without putting bullets in them.

Angelo described the outfitting of squad cars with Tasers as a positive development but cautioned the devices were not a fail-safe answer to every scenario confronting police.

Not all Chicago police officers are now equipped with Tasers, which are electroshock weapons that fire dart-like electrodes that incapacitate but are non-lethal.

As details about the LeGrier shooting emerged, Emanuel said there were “serious questions” about what happened and ordered changes in how city police officers are trained to handle calls involving people who may have mental health problems.

The reforms come on the heels of a police shooting this past weekend that left two people dead: Quintonio LeGrier, 19, an emotionally troubled college student on holiday break, and his 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones, a mother of five.