CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Police Department is now facing federal court oversight and reform when it comes to executing search warrants after years of investigating illegal CBS 2 police raids.
On Friday afternoon, a federal court judge granted a motion to amend the CPD’s consent decree to now include oversight of search warrant policies and procedures.
Craig Futterman is a clinical professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and one of the principal attorneys representing the Public Coalition in the Chicago Police Department Consent Decree. He explained that in practice it means introducing reforms to the consent decree.
“This means that incorrect raids – raids on homes discovered by CBS – are now strictly regulated by a Chicago Police consent decree,” Futterman said. “Now they are under the supervision of a federal judge, which means everything – everything from the policy of search warrants, training, the use of CPD force, aiming a gun at children. Interaction with children, discrimination, racism, use of cameras. In fact, by giving people the opportunity to open the door, the reports will be monitored by a federal judge and independent observers to make sure everything the Chicago Police Department does complies with the consent decree. ”
The Consent Decree, a series of mandatory CPD reforms overseen by the federal court to make sure they are enforced, was first enacted in 2019.
A federal investigation has been launched against Chicago police following the assassination of Laquan McDonald. The key findings were police abuse occurring in colored communities and lack of accountability.
CPD issues that need to be reviewed include the use of force, training, impartial policing, and more. But search warrants have not yet been included in the decree.
“So it’s a really big day,” Futterman added. “This is a day that people have long fought for, and the culmination of years of investigation and constant coverage and coverage of this horrific and traumatic practice of improper raids – especially in the homes of the Black and Brown families – by the Police Department.”
In August 2018, CBS 2 investigators began exposing the model of Chicago officers who systematically raided the homes of innocent people. Using the department’s own data, we found that bad raids occurred mostly in colored communities. We also found that officers aimed weapons at children, continued to refuse warrants, turned off cameras and other behaviors that traumatized innocent families.
Anjanet Young became a symbol of these wrong raids. An innocent social worker was alone at home and changed clothes when in February 2019 officers broke into her house and handcuffed her naked. CBS Investigators 2 were the first to release video from the body camera showing how frightened Young repeatedly told the officers that they were not in that house.
The wrong raid on her house became a lightning rod for change, and five black alders made an offer the so-called “Order of Andrzej Young”, seeking tougher reform of search warrants through city law, which they believe has more teeth compared to the CPD new search warrant policy. More than a year after the proposal was made, it has not yet gone to the polls, and supporters are planning a Saturday rally to demand its adoption.
Futterman said it was time for Anjanet Young to rule – and also said that the reform of the search warrant under the consent decree did not go far enough.
“Just putting it under control does not change the bad policies that continue to exist. It is still necessary to do things like the Decree of Andrzej Young and accept it. And there is when the city is truly true and truly evolving to be committed to ending illegal raids and discrimination.” it will do just that. He will make the decision of Andrzej Young. And nothing but that would be a failure. “
Young will hold a rally on Saturday at the Daily Plaza in support of the Order of Angenet Young.
In each case, as in Young, CBS 2 found officers use confidential informants for cluesbut then failed to verify their accuracy.
Following our investigation in August 2020, lawyers participated in a decree of consent filed a 14-page enforcement case, a letter demanding the department stop its scheme of “abusing” search warrant tactics, or the team will hand over the city to federal court. It cites the findings of CBS 2 and what lawyers called systemic police violations and excessive force. They said it was proof of why the practice of search warrants needed federal court supervision.
After CBS 2 investigators uncovered a failed raid on Andrzej Young’s home, a coalition of community groups, including the ACLU, filed a motion to include court oversight of search warrants in the consent decree and ensure the CPD makes changes to combat discriminatory and unconstitutional searches.
Illinois ACLU Deputy Attorney General Michel Garcia said they were “pleased that search warrants and home raids have been included under the consent section. Blacks and browns and families across Chicago have fallen victim to racial discrimination, unconstitutionality and unconstitutionality.” We have known that the illegal raid on the house of Andrzej Young has not been a one-off. , The CPD is not going to fix search warrants and home raids on its own. The consent decree is a good place to address this pressing need of Chicago. ”
For years the city fought against any changes to include a search warrant in the decree of consent. But in court on Friday it was said that all parties worked together and agreed to change the decree.
CPD search warrant policies and procedures will be monitored to ensure that they are not discriminatory or punishable. The CPD must also have systems for data collection, training, control and accountability to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and all laws.
Also in court, it was said that the CPD will have direct and meaningful interactions with Chicagoans who know they are feeling out of the raid, and the inclusion of search warrants in the decree will be very important to restore public confidence.
CBS 2 is investigating improper raids as Young’s case, has caused a number of other changes to the CPD and City Hall, including:
- Chicago police reviewed the search warrant.
- The mayor has created an order for cameras so that victims can more easily get police video.
- Officers who raided Anjanet Young’s home were recruited and faced 100 counts of misconduct – measures that were taken only after our investigation, almost two years after the raid. Several employees face dismissal or dismissal.
- The city council held extensive hearings on the reform of the search warrant.
- The Chicago Inspector General (IG) has launched an investigation into possible violations, including at City Hall. The IG published a summary of the report, believing the city’s response to the raid was “extremely detrimental to Young,” but Lightfoot declined to publish the full report.
- The IG is continuing its investigation into the CPD’s search warrant policy and practice and has issued interim findings calling for “urgent recommendations” on changes to the search warrant policy, which were immediately adopted by the police.
- Legislation on search warrants was enacted.
Mayor Laurie Lightfoot, CPD Supt. David Brown and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued a joint statement Friday amending the Decree of Consent, which reads in part: “Chicagoans deserve a police department they fully trust. Although we have laid the groundwork for police reform in the CPD and in the city we know much remains to be done. We build trust by ensuring that every officer has the tools to do their job constitutionally, efficiently and fairly. This is how we strive to become the best police department and, in turn, build a better and safer city for everyone. ”
However, the city has actually fought for years to ensure that search warrants are not included in the consent decree, according to Futterman.
“The CPD is fighting this, not accepting it with open arms – and so it’s not a small event and an event that wouldn’t have happened again if it weren’t for the eyes and work of CBS 2; if it weren’t for the work of people in the community that raised it and continued to struggle with this, “Futterman said,” and all the credit goes to the federal judge who heard our cries. “
Amendments to Friday’s consent decree also give the CPD an additional three years to come into full compliance with court-imposed reforms, giving the department until 2027.
“The three-year extension approved by the court today simply recognizes the reality. The city has not met more than half of the deadlines required by the decree during the first years of its implementation. We are glad that all participants recognize that this process takes time – and full attention of the mayor Lightfoot and the city – to be successful, “said Michel Garcia, deputy director of legal affairs for the Illinois ACLU.
