Strengthening Chicago Police is the best method of reform
Within hours of the final balloon falling from the ceiling of the United Center to close out the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the order came for Chicago Police Department (CPD) to return to “Normal Operations.” The directive brought an end to months of meticulous planning and preparation for the DNC. One day following the DNC’s farewell from Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson basked in national attention for executing a nearly flawless special event. Of course, having more police personnel than protesters certainly helped.
While Mayor Johnson deserves praise for overseeing an efficient DNC, so does Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling, who spent years training recruits at the Police Academy. Officers who were assigned responsibilities at the DNC attest that Snelling’s planning and training regimen left them better disposed to address expected protests. CPD’s effectiveness however will offer no respite from the demands for reform. However, it is time to acknowledge the Consent Decree may not be that reform vehicle.
As the decree enters the seventh year on which millions have been spent implementing and monitoring, it is obvious the decree is not working because it fails to tackle the real and often ignored reasons for the problems faced by CPD, largely the lack of resources and support and the political nature of hiring, promoting, and accountability. The failure of the Consent Decree to address these vital issues has taken a toll on the quality of its recruits, department leadership, and the system of police oversight.
An analysis of the Consent Decree by Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute observed that the Consent Decree does not seem to have produced a decline in controversial police shootings. That the number of complaints against police rose after the decree was implemented and only recently declined is telling, and likely related to the dramatic reduction in police strength, which translated into far fewer stops and arrests. Finally, the period following the Consent Decree saw no meaningful change in either measure, either across the city as a whole or among any of the racial and ethnic subgroups that were tracked.
A fundamental problem with the Consent Decree is that it measures success by the number of police shootings and the number of complaints and public confidence in the police, while completely ignoring the impact the Consent Decree is having on crime. In instances in which a Consent Decree has been imposed on a city's law enforcement agency, a pattern has developed, which reveals an increase in crime. Surprisingly, the trend of a rise in crime is not considered when examining the effectiveness of a Consent Decree. Other results when examining the functionality of Consent Decrees show that far fewer citizens fear the police than those who fear the police are unable to protect them.
Improving community confidence in CPD requires a department that can be responsive and protect citizens
There is no substitute for increasing strength so that every local Police Beat has a sufficient number of officers able to respond to high priority 911 calls in real time and every CTA station and train platform has officers present. The increase in overtime costs alone pre-COVID and for the unarmed, poorly trained CTA private security could finance nearly 2,000 more police officers. Having the presence of Beat officers who know the community and are known to the community is fundamental for building public confidence that police officers will respond in real time.
To correct this deficit of manpower, Chicago should ponder the creation of a CPD Reserve Force modeled on a program in Los Angeles, which has enjoyed success. A unit composed of former CPD officers turned firefighters, retired officers, and officers from other departments who called be available for special events and emergencies, the position could be paid hourly and one which reserve officers could work up to 16 hours a month. In this role, reserve officers could fulfill a variety of assignments upon completion of a training program at the Police Academy.
Akin to developing a standing reserve police unit, the City of Chicago could also consider the creation of a unit comprised of retired detectives to assist active-duty detectives. A unit which could work with CPD on a part-time basis, the addition of retired detectives applying their considerable skills would lift a substantial burden off active investigators serving in the Bureau of Detectives. Assignments could include the interview of witnesses, records checks, reviewing pod camera video, searching social media traffic or training.
The unit of retired detectives could also be tasked with administering and staffing a “Witness and Victims Protection Program.” Such a program is also critical to building community trust. This means serving and enforcing Orders of Protection in a timely and effective manner. Providing close coordination among government agencies to provide care and prioritizing new services for victims of domestic violence. Additionally, the SAFE-T Act should be amended, and Chicago's authority under Home Rule should be used to impose heavy penalties, including jail time, for those who would threaten a witness, victim, or police officer.
Professionalizing the CPD by removing politics
Did we really need a court to tell us that the police need working cameras, tasers, sufficient supervisor-to-officer ratios, ongoing, redundant training, and a state-of-the art training center? Apparently in Chicago we do. The decision to withhold these vital resources were political decisions driven by some combination of budgetary considerations, poor prioritizing, or negligent leadership.
To provide the Chicago Police Department with the transformative change it needs and deserves requires that you create a structure that will remove politically-driven decisions on police policy so CPD can perform its duties. This includes ensuring that academically prepared and the most psychologically qualified individuals are hired and promoted, that only experienced, accomplished and trained officers assume leadership positions and that the officers, their supervisors, and leaders reflect all the communities they serve.
This noble goal can be accomplished by increasing hiring standards and expanding the pool of high-quality police candidates drawn from the community. Reforming the promotion system to only promote based on “Time in Service/Time in Grade” and additional training and providing a vehicle for effective expanded training and leadership development. Chicago should also take the needed step of creating a Command and General Staff College consisting of both officers and criminal justice experts who can guide standards, tactics, and training.
Create a pipeline that ensures future police candidates are of high quality and reflect the community
To assist CPD in raising the number of highly qualified and diverse personnel, the City of Chicago should retain the services of a Chicago-based advertising agency to develop effective strategies to recruit new officers. CPD’s current recruiting program is wholly inadequate and tends to concentrate its hiring practices by adhering to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) concepts. A philosophy with damaging consequences for CPD, DEI hiring standards often result in CPD disregarding prime candidates from serving Chicago.
As part of an effort to draw prospective employees to CPD, a professionally designed recruiting campaign which centers on luring superior candidates — such as men and women with prior experience in law enforcement or service in the armed forces, always an excellent source of diverse high-quality candidates — to apply for and undergo selection and training processes will ensure CPD will maximize on talent recruitment. Local hiring could also be complimented by stepping up the Veterans and Line of Duty preference hiring as well as removing obstacles to hiring from other police departments and for former CPD officers to return.
Chicago would also benefit by working in close collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago City Colleges to assist with recruitment. CPS made history by opening the nation’s first public military high school in the Bronzeville neighborhood in 1999. Since the opening of the Military Academy in Bronzeville, the city has opened 11 such schools and 40 high schools with ROTC programs. These schools can be pressed into service to help cultivate future police officers, and all first responders. This includes firefighters, EMT, EMS, and TSA. Over 10,000 students, overwhelmingly Black and Latino, annually enroll in the academies and ROTC programs.
The Chicago (high school) Police and Fire Training Academy (CPFTA) also draws hundreds of students from all high schools who are interested in careers in public safety, law enforcement, criminal justice and fire safety. The academy program could be upgraded and expanded to include of all Chicago high school students, public and private, who interested in such careers. CPFTA graduates are eligible to receive free tuition at the City Colleges of Chicago.
If the curriculum is aligned with City Colleges and local university courses, these schools and programs could feed the city’s first responder departments, similarly to how ROTC and JROTC programs serve the military. This system is preferable to the present program that discriminates against private school graduates and simply gives preferential police hiring to Chicago Public School graduates only, with no real standards.
With these pipelines in place, there would be no need for the current general CPS preference hiring which produces neither the numbers nor the quality candidates needed, nor the need to lower general hiring standards. It will ensure a diverse group of exceptional, future police candidates who are well schooled in the areas critical to effective policing.
Create an “exempt level” class of distinguished officers who can serve as Police Training officers (PTO)
To be a more effective police department in these most challenging times and to effectively implement the consent decree orders particularly with regards to training and supervision, CPD must also create an “exempt level” class of Police Training Officers or PTO’s to serve as trainers, supervisors and role models for new officers. They would be selected based on their record, training, and experience and would be compensated accordingly.
Without such role models training, mentoring and supervising new officers the department will struggle to change its culture and gain buy-in from officers of all ranks. Changes to policing practices and the CPD are coming. Without the right leadership and role models at all levels, officer moral and effectiveness will be adversely impacted, and the public will remain dissatisfied.
Promotions should be based on Time in Service, Time in Grade and Advanced Training
Officers meeting CPD standards should be promoted based on accumulated service time and time logged in a specific pay grade. Advanced training is not sufficient evidence worthy of promotion. Neither should promotions be based on a single, controversial, high-stakes test. In other words, promotions need to be clearly earned.
A combination of experience, accomplishments, and additional schooling and training are the best criteria to ensure that those most qualified for promotion are indeed promoted. This is the best practice promotion system utilized by the armed services, with has had great success. If you recruit first-rate candidates who reflect the community at the front end and promote based on time in service and advanced training, you will have a high quality and diverse leadership corps.
Create the Police Staff and Command School
Creating a CPD Command and General Staff School to guide police training, strategy and tactics and would be modeled on the best practices in other national police and federal leadership training schools. Think the U.S. Military War College and Command and General Staff College that not only guides military training but also provides the rigorous schooling required of military officers before they can join the senior officer ranks.
The school would design and implement rigorous leadership training programs to develop future CPD leaders to fill all the exempt ranks including sergeants, while developing a demanding training program to recruit a new cadre of “Police Training Officers,” who are selected based on their training and experience and are compensated accordingly. The school would also provide required training for Police Board and COPA personnel as well as Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability board members.
Provide effective police accountability by consolidating and de-politicizing oversight
COPA Chief Andrea Kersten’s continued display of clear bias and poor judgment, highlighted by in her uninformed and overhyped comments at the City Club, Chicago Tonight and, unfathomably, a lengthy interview on sportscaster Stephen A. Smith’s national podcast, reminds us again of a fundamental problem that Kersten and most COPA appointees possess: A bias against police and a dangerous lack of knowledge and understanding of the experience of a Chicago police officer. Evidence of COPA's bias is found in a recent report and The Office of the Inspector General has pointed to COPA's lack of consistency and fairness.
It is time to consolidate and professionalize police oversight and bring fairness and speed to the investigations of police officers. Eliminate COPA and consolidate police oversight (COPA, Police Board, BIA) under one board. That board not only needs police officer representation but also that members complete Police Academy training and investigators be members of law enforcement with investigatory expertise. Former IG Joe Ferguson said it best: “Justice must run in all directions — for all.”
To be effective as a police department in these most challenging times, CPD must have a diverse group of superb police officers drawn from the community and exempt level supervisors and commanders who have earned promotion 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 of these areas.
Paul G. Vallas is CEO of The McKenzie Foundation and a policy advisor at the Illinois Policy Institute. Mr. Vallas ran for mayor of Chicago in 2023 and previously served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
