“Objectively reasonable, necessary and proportionate”: Rarely have a set of words sounded so plain yet proved so inadequate in addressing what happened, and what went wrong, on a Humboldt Park street corner on March 21.
The words in question come from the Chicago Police Department’s use-of-force policy. Officers may use deadly force to protect themselves, fellow cops or bystanders. They can use it to stop an attack, secure an arrest, control a subject or stop an escape.
That may sound completely rational, completely clear. But in the heat of the moment, all too often, those words just don’t work. A cop overreacts. Or a cop responds too late. Either way, lives can be lost as a result — police or public; bullets don’t care.
One such life belonged to Dexter Reed. The unnamed officer Reed shot could easily have died, too.
A report by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, backed by horrifying video, shows how fast such incidents can move.
Five cops, working undercover in an unmarked SUV, approached Reed’s parked SUV, according to the COPA report and the videotapes the agency released. Reed rolled down his window, then rolled it back up. The cops ordered Reed to unlock his car doors. He did not comply. Reed shot his gun; cops returned fire.
Ninety-six rounds they shot, according to COPA, as Reed apparently dropped his weapon, exited his car, moved toward the rear bumper and crumpled to the ground. Three of the officers reloaded during the encounter.
The city is just beginning to reckon with what we’ve witnessed courtesy of the videos COPA released. And part of that must be a search for reasons why such senseless violence continues when the full force of government — not to mention the unanswered prayers of the community — is seeking to stop the bloodshed.
A court-mandated police consent decree was designed to prevent disasters such as this. Put into effect in 2019, a response to the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by police Officer Jason Van Dyke, the decree seeks to impose training, apply de-escalation techniques and secure other reforms within the CPD.
But the court-appointed monitor, Maggie Hickey, in a report last November found that the CPD had complied with only 6% of its requirements in the 236-page decree — five years after implementation began. The department is so far behind that the deadline for full compliance has been extended.
Chicago’s police superintendent, Larry Snelling, seemed suited to bring the CPD into compliance when Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed him last summer. Snelling had worked at the police training academy, was an advocate for de-escalation and had an up-from-the-CPD-ranks resume that on paper could win rank-and-file support for the cultural changes needed to effectively implement the decree.
Yet CPD is proving stubbornly resistant to reform. And it’s no wonder, with leaders like John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, obstructing progress wherever they can.
In a video posted to YouTube after COPA released its report, Catanzara said the officers who initiated contact with Reed “responded heroically” once one of them was shot. He attacked the head of COPA, Andrea Kersten, calling her corrupt because she released police-cam videos without COPA yet interviewing the officers involved.
Johnson had a simple answer for such criticism. Attempts at delaying release of such videos “are mistakes of the past,” he said at a press conference following release of COPA’s report. This was a clear reference to Rahm Emanuel, who delayed release of the McDonald murder until after Emanuel’s 2015 mayoral reelection was safely won.
Mayor Johnson, in this delicate moment, responded in a measured way. He expressed compassion for Reed’s family, concern for the cop who was shot and conviction to make the city safer.
What Johnson did not say, and what the city needs to hear, is that the failure to urgently adopt the changes required under the consent decree can no longer be tolerated. This means Superintendent Snelling, who was not present at the press conference — the reason not yet fully explained — needs to begin showing results, and fast.
It may be Snelling’s job to make reform happen, but it’s Johnson’s responsibility to make sure this job gets done. They can both start by holding the cops in the Reed traffic stop responsible if their actions were not by the book, a determination COPA’s continuing investigation ultimately will make.
Mayor now for nearly a year, Johnson owns this incident and any breakdown in police discipline it may represent. Surely the mayor must know voters will hold him accountable, just as they rejected Mayor Lori Lightfoot in part for the failures of her police superintendent, David Brown; just as the public repudiated Emanuel for his gamesmanship with the Laquan McDonald video.
Johnson selected Snelling, in part, because of Snelling’s background in training and reputation as a cop’s cop. Now is the time for the chief to show he’s the kind of cop’s cop who can get other cops to do what’s right.
The consent decree lays out the work ahead. Paraphrasing the use-of-force policy here: Now is the time for Johnson and Snelling to show leadership that is objective, reasonable, necessary and proportionate to the continuing crisis in Chicago policing.
There may be nothing more important to our city, and to Johnson’s term as mayor, than securing urgent, measurable progress on police reform.
David Greising is president and CEO of the Better Government Association.
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