WEST HUMBOLDT PARK — Chicago Police Department leaders gave reporters a tour of their new training facility Friday, promising they’re better equipped to catch up on long-delayed reforms.
In its latest report published Wednesday, an independent police watchdog once again took the department to task for minimal progress on its federal consent decree: expansive reform requirements the department was put under following the police murder of teenager Laquan McDonald almost a decade ago.
In her report, monitor Maggie Hickey wrote the department has only fulfilled six percent of its mandates, with 66 percent of all mandates in preliminary stages or showing no compliance.
“Overall, the City’s and the CPD’s compliance efforts continue to lag and, after several reporting periods of minimal progress, bring into question the City’s and the
CPD’s commitment to implementing reforms in community policing practices as
required by the Consent Decree,” Hickey wrote.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Angel Novalez, chief of constitutional policing, asked for more patience.
“We are committed to reform, and know that there are numerous steps that have to be taken, incredibly complex steps,” Novalez said. “The process is lengthy and you can’t skip steps … but we also understand the importance of the public feeling that reform.”
The monitors have been involved with the city’s new $128 million police academy, 4301 W. Chicago Ave., which has centralized its training operations and given officers “the training they were craving,” Novalez said.
But activists have long protested the sprawling West Humboldt Park campus, saying they’d rather the city spend its money on housing and social services.
Ralph Cruz, commander of the department’s training division, said the academy offers a fresh chance to “put policy into practice.” Novalez called the new academy an “illustration of our commitment to the consent decree.”
More than 10,000 police officers will go through their 40 hours of required training at the academy each year, officials said.
In her recent report, which covered Jan. 1 – June 30, 2023, Hickey credited the department for making training more “coordinated, well-planned,” but those efforts still face “chronic staffing issues.” The police academy, which opened in late January, was not directly named in the report.
The department must fulfill 552 paragraphs of compliance to complete its consent decree — the largest handed down on any major police department, Novalez said. The requirements include sweeping changes to use of force and foot pursuit policies.
Hickey welcomed new Police Supt. Larry Snelling’s “public commitments to transparency in policing” — but strongly criticized the department for a lack of community policing strategy, poor data keeping, deploying its staff ineffectively and slashing offices central to reforms.
The lulls are due to a continued disconnect between the constitutional policing department — tasked with instituting reforms — and leaders managing rank-and-file officers on a daily basis, Hickey wrote.
“CPD personnel have developed and implemented a myriad of new policies, training materials, and public data sources since the start of the Consent Decree,” Hickey wrote in the report. “The remaining compliance levels, however, reflect that much more must be done.”
Former Police Supt. David Brown fired the former executive director of constitutional policing after he challenged Brown’s decision to move officers under his command to patrols. The last person to hold the position resigned months after being appointed by acting Supt. Fred Waller.
The job remains unfilled under Snelling.
On Friday Novalez, a recent finalist for CPD’s top position, said Snelling’s “strong reform background” would energize consent decree efforts, and also a cultural shift, across the entire police department.
Snelling, a former sergeant at the police academy, pledged at his superintendent confirmation to oversee “a significant increase” in consent decree compliance over his first year, but did not commit to specific figures.
The constitutional and community policing offices will expand staffing under the mayor’s recommended 2024 budget. That will increase training bandwidth and allow for more civilian input as police write and implement policies, Novalez said.
On Friday in a “de-escalation and crisis intervention training” inside the academy’s “tactical village” — resembling a Chicago neighborhood with streets and buildings — an officer responded to an actor with a mock knife and suicidal ideations. The officer talked to the actor at a distance and eased him into putting the knife down. The man was then apprehended without the officer ever drawing her gun.
“We’re trying to afford officers the time to slow things down, absorb as many variables as possible, establish a relationship with the individual and attempt to de-escalate to a positive resolution,” Novalez said. “We don’t want officers to feel like they have to rush in, make an immediate decision and act…so we can limit any kind of injury.”
Police officials took reporters by a “Yoga for First Responders” class on the academy’s second floor, intended to help officers “handle stress more effectively and regulate themselves,” said Liz Schultz, director of constitutional policing.
Novalez said the department is “embracing” all parts of its consent decree.
“We want to make sure we are a self-regulating organization,” Novalez said. “Because that is what the public demands.”
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