As reported by The Chicago Sun-Times, court-appointed monitor Maggie Hickey advised Federal Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer during a status hearing that Johnson and the City Council carrying out his proposed cuts to the Chicago Police Department's (CPD’s) Constitutional Policing division "could be a devastating blow to the future of CPD reforms,” mandated under the federal consent-decree “not only risk slowing the already-behind pace of reform — the cuts risk undoing the progress the City and CPD have made.”
She noted that the department has only reached 9% compliance with the decree and should be accelerating efforts, “not just fighting to maintain it.”
WTTW journalist Heather Cherone observed that in the 5 ½ years since the CPD submitted to federal oversight “there have been bursts of activity to address the brutality & civil rights violations that led to the decree. But the record of actual accomplishment is meager.” She slammed the Johnson administration’s plan saying the cuts “could end up costing Chicago more in the long term while immediately stalling progress.”
“A series of significant events led to the Consent Decree, and it will take more than one successful — albeit historic — convention to rebuild community trust,” she wrote. “By design, full and effective compliance with the Consent Decree will take sustained effort and results.”
In a letter issued to Johnson last week, Attorney General of Illinois Kwame Raoul whose predecessor led the suit against Chicago that forced the decree warned “I must remind you that the consent decree is not optional.” Raoul emphasized, “The City of Chicago must deliver on its consent decree obligations.”In the 5 1/2 years since CPD agreed to federal court oversight, there have been bursts of activity to address the brutality & civil rights violations that led to the decree.
— Heather Cherone (@HeatherCherone) November 20, 2024
But the record of actual accomplishment is meager, @wttw & @propublica reports https://t.co/d0IjpBK8jU
“Adopting the currently proposed cuts would place the City at significant risk of being held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the consent decree,” Raoul added. “I have copied the City’s legal counsel on this letter, which serves as notice under the consent decree of my office’s intent to seek court enforcement of the City’s obligations if the currently proposed cuts to CPD’s budget are adopted and implemented.”
The consent decree came about in 2019 after a brutal report from the Trump-Administration Department of Justice which followed the officer-involved shooting death of Laquan McDonald and the subsequent civil rights lawsuit.
Johnson’s Budget cuts and deficiencies in hiring, as previously reported by Law Enforcement Today, have already proven highly controversial causing serious discord within the city council. Raoul conceded to Johnson in his letter that “budget constraints require difficult choices to be made.” However, he added, “a binding court-enforced consent decree takes certain choices off the table.” In particular, he notes the deepest budget cuts “which target units within the CPD responsible for implementing the consent decree’s reforms.”
