DOJ to release findings after year-long CPD probe

The DOJ investigation was a year-long study specifically focused on CPD’s use of force, including racial and ethnic disparities in that use, as well as its systems of accountability, in which the department interviewed and met with city leaders, current and former police officials, and officers throughout the CPD. Although the examples and specific cases will be different in Chicago, the tone and substance are likely to be similar to what was found in Baltimore, where Thursday Lynch announced a consent agreement; federal oversight to fix the police problems.

The investigation began after the release of dash cam footage, which captured the 2014 shooting of black teen Laquan McDonald by Chicago officers.

Those findings, released Friday, were part of a broad investigation of the Chicago Police Department.

This is a breaking news story and LawNewz.com will update the report as more information is available. During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week he added that he is concerned “that good police officers and good departments can be sued by the Department of Justice when you just have individuals within a department that have done wrong”.

In more recent years, officers have come under scrutiny for the fatal shootings of unarmed black citizens in Chicago ― including Rekia Boyd, who was shot by an off-duty officer.

“Some of the findings in the report are hard to read”, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at the news conference.

Investigations into police misconduct were often thwarted by “a code of silence among Chicago police officers. extending to lying and affirmative efforts to hide evidence”, the report said.

Some of the agreements reached between the Department of Justice and police departments would continue under a Trump administration, but there is no requirement that the department continue to investigate police abuses of power. “It remains to be seen what happens in any other cities … and whether Trump Department of Justice will pursue those inquiries”.

“CPD does not give its officers the training they need to do their jobs safely, effectively, and lawfully”.

According to the report, the “unlawful” use of force “resulted from a collection of poor police practices”, including exhibiting “poor discipline” when discharging their weapons, “tactically unsound” foot pursuits, officers shooting at vehicles “without justification”, and failing to wait for backup before engaging suspects. “It fails to properly collect and analyze data, including data on misconduct complaints and training deficiencies, and it does not adequately review use-of-force incidents to determine whether force was appropriate or lawful or whether the use of force could’ve been avoided altogether”.

McCarthy said that DOJ officials have never spoken to him about their Chicago probe, even though he was responsible for the department’s policies and practices for more than four years. In the following days the police chief was sacked and the investigation was launched amid protests in the city and calls for reform.

But the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson urged a far broader intergovernmental approach to remedying a catalogue of social ills afflicting Chicago, saying “you can not police poverty”. They want police shooting investigations reopened and criminal charges.