Charlie Beck has told anyone who will listen that he or she shouldn’t expect him to be a caretaker police chief.
Beck is in charge of the Chicago Police Department only on an interim basis. The former Los Angeles police chief is not considered a candidate for appointment to the job as Chicago’s police superintendent.
Yet on Jan. 30, two months after taking over as successor to Eddie Johnson, who was fired, Beck put a lasting stamp on the CPD.
In step one, Beck restructured the CPD’s command structure. In step two, he hand-selected the people who would fill the department’s leadership ranks.
If this sounds like a lot of action by a newcomer and part-timer, it is. But given CPD’s track record, one of racial bias and rogue policing that has made it answerable to a federal consent decree, there was little reason to stand by the status quo.
Besides, Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not appoint Beck to stand pat.
Read the rest at chicagotribune.com
