CHICAGO _ An independent monitor will oversee the Chicago Police Department under a tentative agreement that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration has made with the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a source in the Emanuel administration.
That development answers a key question that has loomed over the city's beleaguered Police Department since the Justice Department announced its investigation 18 months ago in the fallout sparked by video of a white officer shooting black teen Laquan McDonald 16 times.
It does not appear, however, that the plan will call for a reform agreement to be immediately entered in court and overseen by a judge. Such agreements have been put in place in other troubled police departments found by the Justice Department to have systematically violated peoples' civil rights, allowing judges to press those cities to stand by their commitments to reform.
The administration source said the city has reached an agreement in principle to forge a "memorandum of agreement" with the Justice Department on reforms, and the parties will work to appoint an independent monitor to oversee those reforms. The Justice Department is currently reviewing a draft of the memorandum, the source said.
The agreement builds upon plans for police reform already proposed by City Hall and comes after a scathing report the Justice Department issued about the Police Department in January, the source said.
The report blasted the Chicago police as badly trained, poorly supervised, rarely disciplined and prone to using force, particularly against minorities.
Many reform advocates and experts had expected the department to come under a court-monitored consent decree, a device the Obama administration used repeatedly.
The dynamic changed, however, with the election of President Donald Trump, who appointed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Sessions has criticized consent decrees, voiced support for officers and ordered a sweeping review of all of the federal agreements with local agencies.
