The term “police consent decree” may sound legalistic, but in fact, peace in our neighborhoods, racial justice, responsible policing, care for the mentally ill and even human lives hang on the many codicils of the legal contract between the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
Never forget: The binding agreement, by which the city pledged to clean up its police force in 799 paragraphs of minute detail, became necessary after the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014. A U.S. Justice Department investigation ultimately found a pattern and practice of racially biased, rogue policing that presented a clear and present danger to residents of the city — especially people of color in South and West Side neighborhoods.
Given that background, how strange it is that Mayor Brandon Johnson — who fashions himself as a progressive defender of the disenfranchised in Chicago — has short-staffed the already too-small Chicago Police Department unit assigned to bring the city into compliance with the decree.
In Johnson’s proposed $17.3 billion city budget for 2025, the funds allocated to implementing the decree are so inadequate that state Attorney General Kwame Raoul needed to warn Johnson the state would sue for contempt of court in order to force adequate funding, if needed.
