Dec. 06--As part of his first order of business since taking over the Chicago Police Department days ago, interim Superintendent John Escalante has warned that officers will face disciplinary action if they don't make sure the video and audio functions of dashboard cameras in their squad cars are working properly at the start of their shifts.
The 29-year department veteran was named to temporarily succeed Garry McCarthy, who was fired in the fallout over the release of a disturbing dash-cam video that captured Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times. That recording and four other dash-cam videos from different squad cars at the shooting scene, however, had little discernible audio.
During an interview in his office at police headquarters Friday afternoon, Escalante, 51, called the department's current policy on the use of dashboard cameras appropriate but said he wanted to make sure officers on the front lines and their supervisors are following it correctly.
"We've sent inspectors out to the districts who are also doing random checks," he said. "And if an inspector finds an in-car camera isn't working and legitimately has some technical issues but the officer didn't notify their supervisor ... then the inspectors have been taking discipline."
Escalante said he thinks the video of McDonald's fatal shooting in October 2014 was "probably a little harder" to watch than most videos of violent deaths because a police officer was responsible.
"We have good men and women out there that know and follow our use-of-force policy," he said. "Obviously, in this particular case, there's a lot of questions that have to be answered."
Escalante said he understands why people are so angry over the video, but he doesn't think there's any way to "prove or disprove" if a systemic code of silence exists within the department.
