CHICAGO (AP) – The city of Chicago changed course Tuesday and said it now wants to carry out far-reaching reforms of its police under strict federal court supervision, abandoning a draft deal on reforms with the Trump administration that envisioned no court role.
The new approach led to the unusual sight of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan at a joint news conference to announce that Madigan – with the mayor’s full support – had just sued the city seeking court oversight of the beleaguered police force.
The 35-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago requests extensive judicial oversight, including an independent court-appointed monitor who would report regularly to a judge about whether the city was meeting reform benchmarks.
The legal action kills the draft plan negotiated over months between Chicago and the U.S. Justice Department. That agreement drew sharp criticism from community activists, who said transforming city’s 12,000-officer force couldn’t possibly succeed without court scrutiny.
Activists also blasted Emanuel for cutting a deal with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has expressed reservations about taking police-reform plans to judges to make them legally binding in the form of a consent decree. He has said they can unfairly malign good officers.