CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago Police Department has declined to reopen an investigation into allegations that eight officers had ties to the extremist group the Oath Keepers.
Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said her office believes an internal affairs investigation into the alleged association with one of the groups involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was “materially deficient.”
The police department said the probe found none had participated in the group.
“The time for saying the right thing has passed,” Witzburg said. “We can and must do more and do better.”
Witzburg recommended to Mayor Brandon Johnson that his office convene a task force, but administration declined to comment on the idea. Instead, the mayor’s team pointed to its work with the city's civilian police oversight agency.
The inspector general said she worries a lot over a future in which officials “are not even willing to convene a task force.”
“If the mayor’s office is planning some other corrective action, they are silent on that in their response,” Witzburg said. “They do not commit to any specific actions to address this problem.”
A new policy from the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability expanded a ban on officers belonging to criminal organizations. That policy now includes biased groups and those that want to overthrow the U.S. government.
Witzburg told WBBM mishandling allegations that officers are or were members of the Oath Keepers and other extremist groups threatens public trust in the police department.
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