CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago Police Supt. David Brown is shrugging off a vote of “no confidence” from police union leaders, saying he’s staying focused on keeping the city safe.
The board of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 voted no-confidence in Brown, Mayor Lightfoot and First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter. Details were not disclosed by the FOP.
“We’re staying focused. We’re not going to be distracted on protecting the people of Chicago, of reforming this department and ensuring that we’re using all of our energy towards reducing violence,” Brown said Thursday when pressed by reporters for a response.
He said officers have long been expected to be prepared to be on call when circumstances demand it.
The police union president, John Catanzara, explained the board’s stance, in a video posted on social media. Among his complaints: the cancellation of officers’ days off and mandatory extra hours of work.
Cataranza is also angry about a proposal to put a database of police misconduct inquiries online for the public.
Names of officers would be made public whether officers were found to have acted improperly or not. Records would go back to the year 2000 and be continually updated.
"It’s just one more hit. It’s a sickening, reoccurring theme by these politicians to divert from their own misgivings and failings,” said Cataranza, who vowed to fight the plan legally.
Catanzara noted the police department can only go back five years when trying to discipline an officer. He suggests the city may be able to put those recent records online, but not records going back 21 years.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s ignorant,” he said.
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