CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago Police Department wants to have a new use-of-force policy in place by next year, but the department is being criticized over the reform recommendations it plans to adopt with some saying it's more a linguistic change than a reform.
Police officials announced Wednesday they plan to adopt five of the use-of-force recommendations made by the Mayor’s task force, including changing the name of the policy to include the words “de-escalation” and “self-restraint.” But Law professor Craig Futterman, a member of the task force, told the Tribune he did not believe the police changes were amounting to meaningful reform and pointed to roughly 150 other recommendations from the panel.
For example, the task force reportedly called on the department to make it mandatory officers use de-escalation tactics before resorting to using force, but the department’s current rules call for police to try to de-escalate situations when it’s "safe and feasible."
“The process is a sham that is designed to create the illusion of community engagement just for the purpose of checking a box and for public relations as opposed to actual and true community engagement of listening to, engaging, going back and forth, and learning from folks in the community when it comes to their use of force policy,” Futterman told the Tribune. “CPD has no intention on changing the rules of engagement about when force can be used.”
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Deputy Chief Ernest Cato, who co-chairs the committee, defended the reforms the department is adopting, saying that even by accepting five of them, the department is telling the public we hear you.
“We have folks coming from within our community expressing what type of change they would like to be seen done. And, you know, some folks (may say) ‘well, it’s only five (changes),'" he said. “Five is a very powerful number in itself. And the department is saying, ‘OK, we hear you and...we are going to take some of your suggestions and we’re going to put them out there.'"