Police Accountability Ordinance: Big Step Forward, but Hard Work Still Ahead

Testifying at Chicago City Council Committee hearings this week, BPI’s Director of Justice Reform Adam Gross urged council members to support Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ordinance, because it incorporates key reform recommendations made last spring by the Police Accountability Task Force, in which BPI played an active role.  At the same time, Gross cautioned that the ordinance alone is not enough to ensure reform, advising the city council members that in conjunction with passing the ordinance, the city must move forward with a recommendation to form a Community Safety Oversight Board (CSOB) empowered to oversee the police accountability infrastructure.

The Mayor’s ordinance, which overwhelmingly passed the full City Council Wednesday, addresses two key task force recommendations.  It replaces the ineffective Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) with a new entity, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), and it creates a Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety, tasked with auditing and monitoring the police department and the police oversight system, including identifying patterns and practices of bias or misconduct.

While some criticized the Council for passing the ordinance without providing for the community oversight board, BPI stands with its community-based partners who argued compellingly that the City Council should delay the creation of the board until an extensive, city-wide, community-driven effort to seek input is completed.  It is BPI’s view that such a process will help to build consensus across the city for an approach that gives Chicago residents real power in the oversight system and will help build trust in a system that is widely acknowledged to be broken.

The police accountability ordinance passed by the City Council is a big step forward.  But real reform and accountability requires taking the bigger step of embracing community oversight.  BPI intends to make this issue a priority in its ongoing justice reform efforts.

Links to press coverage about the ordinance:

Emanuel wins round on police accountability, but hard work remains on thorny issue, Chicago Tribune, October 6, 2016
New police review agency approved, but bigger battles to come, Sun-Times, October 6, 2016
New agency to investigate police misconduct OK’d by aldermen, dnainfo.com, October 6, 2016
City Council poised to vote on two legs of police accountability; Chicago Sun-Times, October 5, 2016
COPA Gets City Council Vote; WTTW, Chicago Tonight, October 4, 2016