Mayor to announce changes to Chicago police training, Tasers

The department will also emphasize calling for backup “whose training, appearance and tactics can complement communication efforts in a critical encounter and help defuse tension points to gain better control”, Escalante said. “We expect that every police officer develops and displays skills and abilities that allow them to help dissolve confrontations by using the least amount of physical, of lethal force necessary”. “The goal is to make sure everyone goes home safely”.

After news of the shootings broke, Emanuel issued a statement saying in part, “it is clear changes are needed to how officers respond to mental health crises”, CNN reported.

A white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the 2014 fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Amid growing protests over that case and other officer-involved shootings, the city’s police commissioner resigned.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says public trust in Chicago police is “frayed to the point that it’s broken”. Police said Legrier was charging at officers when they opened fire.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy (L) and Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel (R) are shown during a recruitment graduation ceremony in Chicago, Illinois on April 21, 2014.

The officer, a 3-year veteran of the department and a former Marine, has been placed on desk duty at the Harrison District police station after fatally shooting 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones on Saturday.

Every patrol vehicle in the city will soon be equipped with a Taser so officers will have a non-lethal alternative to firing their guns.

The mayor also set up a task force to look into how IPRA investigates police misconduct, how to deal with officers who have faced multiple allegations of misconduct, as Van Dyke had, and the city’s policy on the release of police videos. “It’s not just as simple as ‘Let’s put Tasers on police officers.’ But because of the erosion of trust in the community, [Rahm]’s always in a reactionary mode”.

The Rev. Ira Acree, a local activist and pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, in an interview with WGN-TV on Wednesday expressed frustration at the behavior of the police department, citing a “corrupt, no-snitching environment”.

Emanuel has faced calls for his resignation during near daily protests in the city since video of the McDonald shooting was released last month. Both victims were black. The Cleveland Police Department has also been heavily criticized for the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice last November.

Emanuel said Chicago officials deliberately chose cities that had already undergone Justice Department review, in hopes of making the kinds of changes that would eventually be ordered at the end of the investigation. On Wednesday, Emanuel noted that officers involved in the McDonald shooting discussed using a Taser, but none of them was equipped with one, according to recordings of their conversations with dispatchers. 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. Advocates say that number should be 25 to 35 percent.