While most of Chicago was captivated by the drama surrounding the City Council’s 50-0 defeat of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $300 million property tax increase plan, state officials were alarmed by Johnson’s proposed cuts that would affect implementation of the federal consent decree. Staffing for the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform would be cut by 57%, from 65 employees to 28. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has said the city could be held in contempt of court.
Raoul and the consent decree’s supporters claim that these cuts threaten police reform. The latest progress report from Maggie Hickey, head of the independent monitoring team, shows that the Chicago Police Department had complied fully with only 7% of the consent decree’s provisions by the end of 2023. The consent decree consists of hundreds of reforms including the monitor embedded in the department.
The key question is: Does CPD need an expensive consent decree to implement real reform measures? When she was mayor, Lori Lightfoot predicted that implementing this decree would ultimately cost $50 million to $100 million. The number of reforms likely will ensure the monitor remains a permanent fixture overseeing the Police Department.
Police consent decrees are part of what I call the “criminal industrial complex,” which consists of special interests that have transformed criminal justice reform into a lucrative enterprise. They are the lawyers, advocates, researchers, consultants and monitors who increasingly treat criminals like victims and police like criminals.
An analysis of Chicago’s consent decree last year by Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute observed that so far, the consent decree has not had an “appreciable effect on police conduct or public perception of the department. And there is at least some evidence that the process leading up to the consent decree exacerbated Chicago’s already-substantial crime problem.”
The consent decree measures success by the number of police shootings and complaints and the public’s confidence in CPD, while disregarding the impact it is having on crime. Also ignored is the escalation of violence against the police, who are put at greater risk when they fear being punished for defending themselves.
While the consent decree may improve transparency and accountability, it will not improve the public’s trust. The monitor’s own survey shows Chicagoans have greater fear that police can’t protect them. As crime increases, the communities’ trust in the police is diminished.
There are affordable actions that could be taken to ensure police transparency and accountability, build public trust and, most importantly, reduce crime. They include:
- Restoring police strength to pre-COVID-19 levels. With police numbers down close to 2,000, restoring positions would ensure every police beat is covered by officers who know the neighborhood.
- Ensure that every CTA station and train platform has police coverage and that riders on public transit are protected by officers selected and trained to provide transit security.
- Ensure that there is a 1-10 ratio of police sergeants to officers and create a new “exempt level” class of distinguished officers who can serve as field training officers.
- Draw police candidates from the community while maintaining high standards. CPD should partner with City Colleges, local military academies and high school ROTC programs.
- Remove politics from police promotions by basing all promotions on time in service, time in grade and advanced training, just as they do in the military.
- Create a police command and general staff school composed of distinguished police officers and partner with entities such as the University of Chicago Crime Lab to research best practices, develop and oversee training, and monitor performance.
- Professionalize police oversight and bring fairness and expediency to investigations of officers by consolidating the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Police Board and Bureau of Internal Affairs into one board.
- Amend the SAFE-T Act to establish a zero-tolerance policy that denies or revokes bail and imposes mandatory sentences on anyone who would threaten witnesses, victims or police officers while providing long-promised support for witnesses and victims.
These actions are not cost-prohibitive. Last year, the city spent hundreds of millions of dollars on police overtime because of police shortages. The money the CTA spends on private unarmed and poorly trained security, with no arrest powers, would finance more than 400 additional CPD officers.
To be effective, CPD must have a diverse group of qualified officers drawn from the community and exempt-level supervisors, who have earned their promotions and the respect of fellow officers. Tactics, training and strategy must be guided by its best and brightest, and police accountability must be professional and instructive. The consent decree falls short in all these areas.
Paul Vallas is an adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute. He ran for Chicago mayor in 2023 and in 2019 and was previously budget director for the city and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
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