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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs There Hope for the Chicago Police Department?
http://www.thenation.com/article/is-there-hope-for-the-chicago-police-department/First, this nation must end the drug war. More than any other public policy, the War on Drugs has made enemies of cops and citizens (disproportionately young, poor, and of color). It has corrupted countless police officers and law-enforcement agencies. It has done irreparable harm to individuals, families, and neighborhoods. Further, despite having spent, by one commonly cited estimate, close to $1.5 trillion prosecuting and incarcerating tens of millions of people (many sick or mentally ill, and in need of treatment, not jail) between 1970 and 2010, illicit drugs are more readily available, at lower prices, and higher levels of potency than when President Nixon famously declared this war on the American people.
Second, using the tens of billions of dollars saved by ending the drug warwith a portion of the savings earmarked for a strong regulatory system, as well as drug-abuse education and treatmentthe Justice Department should be tasked with setting and enforcing national standards for every branch of American law enforcement: federal, state, and local. Congress should expand DOJs current investigative duties to include formulation of reasonable, defensible standards of performance and conduct for every cop in the country. Each officer, each agency, must achieve certification in all aspects of procedural justice: search and seizure; stop-and-frisk; laws of arrest; rules of evidence; use of force, including lethal force; and First Amendment protections. The Justice Department must also be empowered to decertify, for cause, individual officers and individual agencies.
And, third, based on the constitutional premise that the police belong to the people and not the other way around, an aroused and organized citizenry (including representatives of such organizations as Black Lives Matter as well as sympathetic police officers and politicians) should demand full citizen participation in all aspects of police operations: hiring, policy-making, program development, training, crisis management, and citizen oversight. In only exigent, dangerous situations should police officers make unilateral decisionsin conformity with policies set by the citizen-police partnership.
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Is There Hope for the Chicago Police Department? (Original Post)
eridani
May 2016
OP
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)1. no, they are hopeless dawgs
hopeless...
uponit7771
(90,370 posts)2. Not with the current leadership who don't value relationships with the community as essential part..
... of THEIR job and don't have any incentive to foster one.
Warpy
(111,406 posts)3. There's hope but the DOJ will have to take them over
and kick out the leadership and the union leadership along with a lot of cops who have been part of the whole corrupt mess and start pretty much from scratch, preferentially hiring women and POC. They'd also do well to end abuses like civil asset forfeiture, a policy that turned a lot of both urban and rural police departments into criminal gangs with licenses to steal property at will and without filing charges.
Nothing will work all that well until we end Nixon's war against the American people.
An online friend years ago was a Chicago cop and seemed like a good guy doing a tough job. I've often wondered if he's still there.
romanic
(2,841 posts)4. Is there any hope for Chicago period?
eridani
(51,907 posts)5. Rahm Emanuel to Disband Chicago Police Oversight Agency
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/36878-rahm-emanuel-to-disband-chicago-police-oversight-agency
He writes it is clear that a totally new agency is required to rebuild trust in investigations of officer involved shootings and the most serious allegations of police misconduct.
Emanuel plans to create a new Public Safety Inspector General to audit and monitor policing in Chicago. He will also create a new Community Safety Oversight Board comprised of Chicago city residents.