Roundup: Craig Futterman on the Chicago Police Chief Firing, DOJ Investigation, Independent Police Review Authority
Craig Futterman, Clinical Professor of Law and director of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, comments on the recent firing of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and the just-announced investigation by the Department of Justice.
AP, "Laws, Contracts Can Give Police Buffer after Fatal Shootings":
Some reformers say the city's collective bargaining agreement with police needs to change.
"It's shameful that cities, including Chicago, have bargained away the public's right to transparency and accountability," said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor and reform advocate.
The New York Times, "Chicago Pays Millions but Punishes Few in Police Killings":
Mr. Emanuel has apologized for Mr. McDonald’s death and appointed a task force to reexamine the force, the city’s oversight of officers and its practice of keeping evidence secret during investigations. “We need a painful but honest reckoning of what went wrong, not just in this one instance but over decades,” Mr. Emanuel said in an emotional speech last week.
Yet Craig B. Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who has studied the police here and fought to make discipline records public, said he sensed a “familiar playbook.”
“Heads will roll and we’ll form a blue ribbon commission to study the problem,” Mr. Futterman said. “But after each and every one of these scandals, we’ve never had the political courage to address the underlying issues, the very causes of distrust between the black community and the Chicago police. Police officers here have been allowed to abuse the most vulnerable Chicago residents with near impunity.”
The Marshall Project, "Why Did It Take the Feds So Long to Probe Chicago Cops?":
In the spring of 2010, two top officials with the U.S. Justice Department sat down at the University of Chicago Law School, where a group of professors and lawyers made a case for why the federal government should investigate the Chicago Police Department for widespread civil rights violations.
The closed-door conversation with then-Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez and his deputy, Roy Austin, went on for more than an hour, said two people at the meeting, University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman and Flint Taylor, a veteran civil rights attorney. It came after the group sent a detailed letter arguing that the police department had grown into an overly aggressive agency with deep-rooted patterns of false arrests and a history of targeting black residents. The federal government declined to take action.
The Washington Post, "On Policing, the National Mood Turns Toward Reform":
Across the nation, protesters are no longer satisfied with indictments or special prosecutors when evidence emerges that someone has died unnecessarily at the hands of police. Instead, they have been seeking — and increasingly securing — the ouster of top officials, as well as concrete steps toward real reform and accountability.
“In my lifetime, I haven’t experienced a moment like this,” said Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago who founded the school’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Clinic. “I’m usually more of a cynic and a skeptic, but this feels different.”
Hyde Park Herald, "Chicago Urban League Hosts Forum on Police":
Legal scholars and activists convened at the Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan, Wednesday evening, to discuss the state of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and possible means of reform.
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“This is the greatest opportunity, since I’ve been alive, for real change,” Futterman said.
The New York Times, "Chicago Protesters Target Independent Police Review Agency":
Advocates are also seeking other reforms that include [...] Renegotiating the city's union contract to strip it of provisions critics say can shield bad officers. Chicago-based lawyer Paul Strauss says one rule bars internal investigators from interviewing officers involved in shootings for 24 hours, potentially giving them time to coordinate fabricated stories. Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor, pointed to requirements that records of complaints against officers be destroyed after several years.
Ebony, "Federal Probe Into Chicago P.D. Could Dismantle Old, Brutal Methods":
Race does matter in Chicago, says Craig Futterman, law professor and director of the University of Chicago's Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. He points out that the city has weathered numerous police scandals but none have grown to the fever pitch the city is currently experiencing. The young activists have pushed the envelope and for that reason, Futterman is optimistic about the DOJ’s involvement.
“At the end of the day, after each crises, never in our history have Chicago’s leaders had the political courage to address the underlying issues why police officers here have been allowed to abuse Black folks with near impunity,” says Futterman. “I’m really proud of our young people, not just from Chicago but from around the nation who have organized, advocated and agitated so that none of us can deny the reality of the problem of unchecked police abuse in Black communities.”
CBS Chicago, "Can Police Officers’ Code Of Silence Be Broken?":
Futterman says the mayor addressing the issue is a good start, but only action can end the code.
“You protect officers that come forward,” Futterman said. “Anyone retaliates against them in any way shape or form, they’re fired.”
AP, "Chicago Police Misconduct has Frayed Relations with Blacks":
Futterman said the fact that higher-ranking officials did not correct the lies told to the public about McDonald's death and fought to suppress the video means the code of silence is "not just at rank-and-file level ... but is approved by supervisors and commanders."
CNN, "Chicago Police Killing of Unarmed Teen Unjustified, Fired Investigator Says":
The neighborhoods with the highest crime rates, Futterman says, are the areas where crimes are least likely to be solved. The trust erodes in those communities while the code of silence among police builds.
And that, he says, is toxic: "The code of silence isn't just about not speaking, it's about controlling the narrative."
Christian Science Monitor, "Chicago Has Tried Police Reform Before. How It Can Do Better This Time.":
Professor Futterman, who now directs the University of Chicago’s Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project, says he had high hopes that IPRA would be independent and conduct fair and unbiased investigations. Up until that point, the police department’s Office of Professional Standards had investigated police aggression.
But the new authority, he says, “inherited the exact same staff [from OPS] with the same issues of bias that had been whitewashing these complaints all of these years.”
Chicago Tribune, "Feds to Conduct Civil Rights Probe of Chicago Police":
Longtime observers of the force said a top-to-bottom investigation was warranted long before McDonald's October 2014 shooting.
"We've had systemic problems in the Chicago Police Department that have allowed the minority number of police officers to prey on the city's most vulnerable residents," said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor who has studied how the police in Chicago use lethal force. "Our leaders have never had the political courage to address the causes of unchecked police abuse in Chicago.
"There is," he added, "an urgent need for federal intervention before the next 17-year-old kid is killed by a Chicago police officer."
Chicago Magazine, "Chicago Police Department Reforms Could Go Further than a DOJ Investigation":
I have a piece in the January issue of Chicago magazine about what the city could do to be more transparent, and it goes beyond the police force to I.P.R.A., the not-exactly-Independent Police Review Authority. One city that comes up in it is Cincinnati, which seems to be the consensus gold standard for the reform of troubled big-city police departments.
By gold standard I don’t mean perfect. Their police chief just got fired, a lot less gently than Garry McCarthy was. Violent crime rates went up there this year. “This isn’t a story in which stuff just went smooth and everything is nirvana there,” says Craig Futterman, the University of Chicago law professor and founder of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. “But they engaged in reform, bringing both some of the most ardent critics and community members, and police officers to the table in joint problem solving. And really helped to establish trust that never existed.”
Chicago Tribune, "Chicago's Flawed System for Investigating Police Shootings":
Other issues contribute to the problem, including that patterns of complaints against officers are not considered during investigations.
"Almost every scandal, you'll find a pattern of complaints," said Craig Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who has been studying misconduct data for Chicago police for years. "The obvious thing would be to use that information. But we don't."
Chicago Reporter, "The Spotlight on McCarthy Should Turn to IPRA":
[Independent Police Review Authority] was never as independent as it was supposed to be; for one thing, it inherited the staff of the police department’s Office of Professional Standards, which it was supposed to replace. But under Ando, who was appointed by Emanuel, IPRA has “a strong bias to protect police accused of wrongdoing,” said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor who has studied CPD’s disciplinary record.
In the wake of McCarthy’s dismissal, the police department is touting a decrease in civilian complaints against police in recent years. That’s hard to evaluate, Futterman said. “There’s not a lot of transparency in terms of [IPRA’s] data,” he said.
US News, "Amid Deadly Force Scandal, Chicago Mayor Fires City’s Top Cop":
Craig Futterman, a civil rights attorney who helped expose the McDonald shooting, says that while Emanuel’s dramatic moves may address the symptoms of what ails the Chicago Police Department and show he’s taking action, they won’t cure the disease.
“Changing the police chief, as we have in so many years in the past, doesn’t address the underlying problems,” including racism and a culture that tolerates misconduct, says Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor. “It does not address the wall of silence” which kept the questionable circumstances of McDonald’s death under wraps for more than a year.