The attorney charged with monitoring reform in the Chicago Police Department has pointedly noted how departmental staffing is affecting those reform efforts. It’s a concern which was also raised this summer by the chief of CPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform.
He was fired the next day.
In a blueprint released Wednesday detailing her office’s plans for the coming year, Maggie Hickey, the court-appointed independent monitor of CPD’s promised reforms, said that CPD staffing shortages continue to slow the department’s compliance with those efforts.
“Recent staffing shortages in the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, for example, threaten to undermine critical reform efforts from the Education and Training Division, and the Tactical Response and Evaluation Division, which are responsible for key internal tracking and oversight functions,” she said. “We have observed a pattern where the CPD makes significant progress with the Consent Decree, which then diminishes as the CPD shifts resources toward deployments and unspecified crime-reduction strategies.”
Hickey’s criticisms come roughly three months after the head of the Constitutional Policing office, Robert Boik, sent a lengthy email to Supt. David Brown, expressing alarm at cuts to his office.
Noting that Hickey, the Independent Monitor, had previously expressed concerns about staffing, Boik told Brown, “Moving the 46 individuals out of OCPR will only sharpen IMT’s point,” and would put at least portions of the department’s consent decree compliance at risk.
“I feel it is my duty to ensure that you are making this decision with a clear understanding of the ramifications for the Department,” he said. “And I respectfully request that you reverse the decision.”
Investigations
The next day, Boik received a letter from Brown informing him he was being terminated.
Hickey's plan also highlighted a focus on officer wellness, noting that the city "continues to experience heartbreaking losses of officers to suicides," a problem the Department of Justice noted in its 2017 investigation in Chicago is 60% higher than the national average.
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In a separate report released Wednesday, Chicago's Inspector General said "deficiencies in recruitment and staffing" are among the issues preventing CPD from meeting officer wellness needs.
Hickey's report included a commitment to monitoring the department's progress in this area in the upcoming year, making note of CPD's need to fill critical positions like a Director of Wellness and additional clinicians "so that this important work may move forward."
A CPD spokesman said in a statement that the department "has been, and remains, committed to continuous improvement through reform."
"We have enhanced our efforts to implement practices and policies that support our officers and strengthen trust within the communities we serve," CPD's statement reads. "We have made significant progress since the implementation of the consent decree, and we have not slowed down as we build on the foundation that has been set."
