CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago City Council is poised to reject an arbitrator's ruling this week that would allow the most serious police disciplinary cases to be decided by arbitration — in secret — instead of by public police board hearings.
The ruling appears to have the City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson headed for a showdown with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). City officials want police officers who are facing suspensions of one or more years or firing to continue to have their cases decided by the Police Board. The FOP wants the option of an arbitrator, behind closed doors.
That could spark a court fight, and on WBBM’s latest “At Issue” program, Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg weighed in. Witzburg said the most important thing is for the process to be transparent.
“We owe members of the Chicago Police Department and members of the public a transparent police disciplinary system, so that everyone involved can be confident that when a member of the police department is accused of doing something wrong, that will get resolved in a robust and transparent manner,” she said. “That’s the North Star.”
The inspector general added that how Chicago gets to a transparent system is, in her opinion, “less important than the fact that we get there.”
Witzburg said there are steps the City can take to make the process more transparent — even without cooperation from the FOP.
Tune in to WBBM Newsradio at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday to hear Political Editor Craig Dellimore’s full interview with the inspector general.
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