CPD releases plans for police department reforms

Chicago police officials released some initial plans Tuesday to set a new course for the beleaguered department.

The roadmap of police reforms is the essence of what the U.S. attorney general laid out two months ago after a U.S. Justice Department investigation found the department lacking in just about every area of operation and performance.

READ: CPD "NEXT STEPS FOR REFORM"

No dramatic changes or personnel moves were announced, but the plan amounts to the department's first steps toward the reforms that officials say they know have to be made.

"The challenges we face were not created overnight, in fact, some have taken decades to develop, so they won't be fixed overnight. But it's important to lay the groundwork for where we're heading as a department," said Eddie Johnson, Chicago police superintendent.

Johnson unveiling a 27-page document entitled "Next steps for reform" and is aimed at being a framework of things to come in 2017.

"Regardless of what happens in D.C., with the Department of Justice, the onus and the responsibility is always on the municipality and I feel really strongly that we shouldn't let anybody outside Chicago dictate to us what the right path is forward," said Lori Lightfoot, president of the Chicago Police Board.

The plan outlines five major areas that will get specific attention this year:

1. Better community policing

2. Training improvements
3. Enhanced Officer Supervision
4. Refined use of force guidelines
5. Increased Police Accountability.

"What's necessary is reform, and to that end we're going to do it. Make no mistake about it, we're not just saying we're going to reform, we're showing you that we're going to reform and if you go out there right now, CPD is different than what it was this time last year," Johnson said.

Johnson said the CPD changes have nothing to do with what the Trump administration does, suggesting reform efforts at the police department will move forward regardless of what the White House says or does, and regardless of whether the Justice Department drops its oversight efforts that began toward the end of the Obama administration.