Chicago police working on reforms after Justice Department report
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Police Department is getting to work to correct what the U.S. Department of Justice calls a pattern of excessive force.
According to the 164-page DOJ report, Chicago police engage in dangerous and unnecessary foot pursuits; that result in CPD shooting people; including those who are unarmed; unsafe tactics that placed officers and others in danger of being shot. The 13-month probe was launched after the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Now, the city is working with federal officials to negotiate an agreement on sweeping reforms.
Superintendent Johnson said the DOJ report lays out all the work that needs to be done. Johnson said improving training is his top priority.
"Accountability starts with me and that's not going to change and I didn't need the Department of Justice to kind of push me into that. I think if you hold yourselves accountable to it, then that helps facilitate that trust that the community knows first and foremost that the superintendent is going to hold us accountable so that we'll do a better job because we can be better," he said.
WATCH: INTERVIEW WITH CPD SUPT. EDDIE JOHNSON
Johnson said he'll be hiring more officers putting them through more consistent training and requiring that they all wear body cameras by the end of this year. He said that right now, morale in the department is low.
"Nobody likes to see the agency they work being criticized like that so that hurts but at the same time they know at the end of this road it will be better for them," Johnson said.
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Friday that the Chicago Police Department has been violating the constitutional rights of residents for years in a blistering report from the Justice Department.
"The DOJ has concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that the Chicago Police Dept. engages in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force," Lynch said.
READ MORE: DOJ's CPD Findings Fact Sheet
READ MORE: Full DOJ Findings
READ MORE: DOJ-Chicago Agreement Principle
The DOJ and City of Chicago have agreed, in principle, to create a federal, court-enforceable consent decree addressing these deficiencies, which will ultimately create an independent board to monitor police department issues, and will lay out the groundwork to implement change. Lynch said the partnership between the DOJ and Chicago is the "first step toward meaningful change and a brighter future."
But with a new administration taking over in just a few days, that consent decree may never happen.
VIDEO: AG LORETTA LYNCH SUMMARIZES DOJ REPORT ON CPD
The video that opened the door to the Justice Department in December 2015 was dashcam footage showing black teenager Laquan McDonald shot and killed by a white police officer.
The DOJ and City of Chicago have agreed, in principle, to create a federal, court-enforceable consent decree addressing these deficiencies, which will ultimately create an independent board to monitor police department issues, and will lay out the groundwork to implement change. Lynch said the partnership between the DOJ and Chicago is the "first step toward meaningful change and a brighter future."
Race is a recurring theme in the Justice Department report. Investigators found "routinely abusive behavior within CPD, especially toward black and Latino residents of Chicago's most challenged neighborhoods."
The DOJ stated that Chicago "residents reported treatment so demeaning they felt dehumanized. One black resident told us that when it comes to CPD, there is 'no treating you as a human being.'"
Social media posts by police officers were also called out. "One CPD officer posted a photo of a dead Muslim soldier laying in a pool of his own blood with the caption: 'the only good Muslim is a (expletive) dead one.'"
"There are at least 3 very, very serious problems in and of themselves that come together on this: excessive force, race, and then the systems of integrity, ethics and investigation that have not been functioning properly. And if you only had one it would be a much easier thing," Hoffman said.
The report outlines numerous cases of officers disrespecting citizens for their race. In one case, an officer threatened to beat a pregnant woman after calling her the N-word. That officer was suspended 15 days, but the report points to most cases of police misconduct going unpunished.
VIDEO: CPD PROTECTED BY 'CODE OF SILENCE'
The investigation portrayed a police force corroded by the use of unreasonable force - many times prompted by a factor of racism - and protected by a code of silence. The deadly force and racism issue went uncontrolled because of a lack of training, according to the DOJ report.
"We found CPD officers do not fully report their uses of force and that supervisors are not appropriately reviewing these uses of force. We found that Chicago's accountability systems are broken. Many complaints that should be investigated are not," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Civil Rights Division.
From officers falsifying reports, to lying in court testimony, to cover-ups of misconduct and crime data, the DOJ report summed up the city's thick blue curtain.
"For decades, Chicago has failed to develop a comprehensive, integrated system to track and make public basic information about its police force," the report said.
"The code of silence, I mean, police officers will not speak against other police officers and that's just a well-known fact," said Gregory Kulis, a longtime Chicago defense attorney who was interviewed by Justice Department investigators.
The incident that provoked the Justice Department investigation - the police shooting death of Laquan McDonald - was cited numerous times in the DOJ report as an incident that raised questions about whether officers were purposely turning off body and dash cameras.
Although the city has since expanded camera use, investigators say camera training and policies are insufficient and the report cites a "pervasive cover-up culture among CPD officers."
"We observed training on deadly force that used a video made decades ago with guidance inconsistent with current law and internal policy," Gupta said.
Gupta said officers are too rarely held accountable for misconduct - when they are, discipline is unpredictable and ineffective - and that failure has "deeply eroded community trust - trust that truly is the cornerstone of public safety."
"We found that Chicago's accountability systems are broken. Many complaints that should be investigated are not. When investigations do occur, they are glacially slow, and staffed by overworked and under-trained investigators who often fail to obtain basic witness statements and evidence," Gupta said.
VIDEO: CPD OPERATIONS IN SHAMBLES
Several Chicago police department operations are in shambles with a community policing program that is nearly non-existent, according to the DOJ report.
In 2016, CPD was able to identify a suspect in only 29 percent of all homicides-a clearance rate less than half the national figure.
Community trust and confidence in CPD are necessary to clear more homicides... but CAPS, the community policing program-caps-designed to help do that is considered a mess.
At one CAPS meeting, investigators say "...An officer was actively antagonistic to community members, responding with hostility and misinterpreting an attendee's statement and getting increasingly louder and more aggressive... "
DOJ said there is a broadly-held view the CAPS program mostly operates as a police surveillance tool. The report takes care to acknowledge officers who are doing it right.
"The systems and policies that fail ordinary citizens also fail the vast majority of Chicago Police Department officers who risk their lives every day to serve and protect the people of Chicago," Lynch said.
The department criticized for having inadequate officer wellness plans finding that "officers grapple with alcoholism and suicide, and some engage in domestic violence."
Former Chicago inspector general and federal prosecutor David Hoffman said officers aren't getting the help they need to help others.
"CPD offers a one-day stress management program to help officers with depression, deal with issues of stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD and they said there is always a wait list, officers are seeking this kind of help and yet it's insufficiently available," Hoffman said.
VIDEO: CPD TRAINING, SUPERVISION IN RUINS
The DOJ uncovered department-wide agreement that CPD "training is inadequate," with problems both at the police academy and in the lack of effective post-academy training.
During the investigation, federal observers found officers watching an obsolete 35-year-old deadly force training video, writing "the tactics depicted in the video were clearly out of date with commonly accepted police standards of today."
In that same training class - investigators found that several recruits were not paying attention, one appeared to be sleeping
Officers told the federal investigators continuing education programs were a "hot mess" and "terrible."
One officer "stating simply" that academy deficiencies mean "our co-workers are going to die because of no training."
Controversial tactics also came under the DOJ microscope, investigators contacted Kulis after he was featured in an I-Team report uncovering a program called "Guns for Freedom," where Chicagoans would give police illegal firearms as an off the books kind of bond to free people from custody.
"They indicated that they have heard that this seems to be a practice in Chicago Police Department and it bothered them and they wanted to investigate it further," said Greg Kulis, Chicago Defense Attorney.
Investigators found that in the wake of the Laquan McDonald video release, city officials mandated Taser training for all officers - and quickly cycled large numbers of officers through poorly designed training.
As a result, they say officers were not effectively taught how or when to use the Taser as a less-lethal force option. Many CPD officers told us the training they received did not adequately prepare them to use Tasers in the field.
"All of these issues are compounded by poor supervision and oversight leading to low officer morale and erosion in officer accountability. These are serious problems and they bare serious consequences for all Chicagoans," Lynch said.
In April 2016, the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force issued a scathing report that outlines big problems in the CPD - racism, excessive force and a code of silence - and described IPRA as badly broken. Lori Lightfoot, President of the Chicago Police Board and task force chair, said Friday both reports had similar findings.
"Many of the things that are reflected in this report were things that the Police Accountability Task Force itself found and reported on back in April of last year when we issued our report," Lightfoot said.
Emanuel and Johnson said at the time that they would implement the task force's recommended reforms.
When asked whether former CPD Supt. Garry McCarthy participated in the investigation, Lynch said, "Attempts were made to reach former Supt. McCarthy, but he was not available."
McCarthy told ABC7 Eyewitness News on Friday: "That is a lie... With all the investigative resources of the federal government, they can't find me here in River North?"
