Justice Department to investigate Chicago police

That investigation commenced in December 2014, about seven weeks after Van Dyke shot McDonald to death, when Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez agreed to conduct a joint investigation of the case with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chicago has been roiled by street protests and political turmoil since the November 24 release of video that showed the officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times after he jogged away from police cars.

– Hummelstown, Pennsylvania: Video from police officer Lisa Mearkle’s stun gun was released after she was acquitted last month of third-degree murder, voluntary and involuntary manslaughter after shooting an unarmed man twice in the back as he laid face-down in the snow.

The civil probe, which will determine whether the department systematically violates constitutional rights, follows murder charges being filed against the police officer in the October 2014 killing. Sunday saw a fresh round of protests after newly released records revealed that a number of officers described the McDonald killing in ways that were thoroughly contradicted by the footage of the incident.

Other cities investigated for civil rights abuses include Ferguson and Baltimore.

News of a sweeping new justice department investigation came on Sunday afternoon as 200 protesters, politicians and clergy marched throughout downtown Chicago, part of continuing efforts to force change to the city’s policing. According to a Justice Department fact sheet, officials are now enforcing ten consent decrees, which are overseen by federal courts, and 16 out-of-court agreements.

Of 409 shootings involving Chicago police since September 2007, only two have led to allegations against an officer being found credible, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing data from the agency that investigates police cases.

“Civil rights division lawyers are reviewing the many requests for an investigation, which is the department’s standard process, and the attorney general is briefed regularly on the review and expects to make a decision soon”, a Justice Department official told the Post.

Five officers at the scene broadly backed up Van Dyke’s account in their own statements made to investigators after the shooting, according to police reports.

Escalante told the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/1NAsbLk ) that he’s sent inspectors to do random checks of dashcams. Amid an outcry after the city waited more than a year to release dash-cam footage of Officer Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced this week that he was setting up a special task force to examine, among other things, the city¿s video-release policy.

“Trust in the Chicago Police Department is broken”, Madigan said in the letter.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the possibility of a civil rights investigation “misguided” last week.