CHICAGO (AP) – A 20-member panel will review the Chicago Police Department’s policy governing when officers can use force, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday.
The panel held its first meeting last week and plans to meet virtually for the next eight weeks before making recommendations to the police superintendent and other leaders, officials said. Residents, activists and one high-ranking police official are among the group’s members.
Lightfoot has said Chicago needs to speed up its police reform timeline following the death of George Floyd after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the black man’s neck. On Monday, Lightfoot said the new working group was part of that effort.
The U.S. Justice Department investigated the city’s police department following the 2015 release of video showing white police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. That video was made public more than a year after McDonald’s death.
The city negotiated an extensive agreement for court-supervised reforms within the police department, which include opportunities for community input on its use of force policy. Van Dyke was later convicted of murder and sent to prison. Lightfoot ran for office after former Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided not to seek another term, under pressure for the city and police department’s response to McDonald’s death, including the delayed release of the shooting video.