The abrupt end of the Jussie Smollett prosecution was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for a group of suburban police chiefs set to gather Thursday afternoon with members of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police to announce a “no confidence” vote in the leadership of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Duane Mellema, head of the North Suburban Association of Chiefs of Police representing more than 30 departments — said a no-confidence vote taken Tuesday was unanimous.
In a letter sent to Foxx, Mellema, who is police chief in Park Ridge, expressed concern over prosecutors’ refusal to file felony charges in certain crimes.
“The abrupt dropping of the 16 indictments against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett during an unannounced court hearing on March 26, 2019, is the latest and most egregious example of the failure by you and your staff to hold offenders accountable,” Mellema states in the letter.
Mellema said representatives from two other chiefs of police organizations representing the south and west suburbs join him at a news conference at 2:30 p.m. at the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police headquarters on West Washington Street in the West Loop.
A spokesman for the Chicago police union declined to comment.
Harvey Police Chief Gregory Thomas pushed back against the no-confidence sentiment expressed by his counterparts, including other members of the South Suburban Association of Chiefs of Police.
“I can only speak for myself, but my message is simply that while I respect my colleagues who’ve signed and issued a letter of no confidence, I think at this time that letter is premature,” Thomas said.
“As police we carry investigations as far as we can and once we turn them over to the state’s attorney we don’t have a say so in the outcome … whether or not we agree with it,” he said. “And that was the standard long before Foxx, so I question the timing here.”
Mellema said the Smollett case is emblematic of decisions not to prosecute in other cases that have left police officers and victims scratching their heads.
“Our officers must explain your decisions not to prosecute to our local victims,” he states in the letter.
One of the biggest problems for the police chiefs is squaring how arrests for certain crimes that are on the books in Illinois — such as marijuana and shoplifting — do not result in prosecutions by Foxx’s office.
“It’s a problem knowing we’re not all working together to pull the rope and these policies are unilaterally put in place by her office,” Mellema said in a phone conversation Thursday morning.
“The Smollett case, metaphorically, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.
MORE ABOUT THE JUSSIE SMOLLETT CASE
• Police union, activists face-off over Kim Foxx, Jussie Smollett
• Kim Foxx calls evidence ‘uncertain’ in latest twist of strange Smollett saga
• Dropping charges against Jussie Smollett a ‘whitewash of justice,’ Rahm says
• TIMELINE: Jussie Smollett’s reported attack and its investigation
