CHICAGO POLICE

CONSENT DECREE

The following documents are related to the Chicago Police Department
reform efforts and will be updated periodically.

CONSENT DECREE DOCUMENTS

On August 29, 2017, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit to obtain reform of the Chicago Police Department. The Illinois Attorney General's Office and the City of Chicago agreed to stay the lawsuit and negotiate an enforceable consent decree based on the findings of the Justice Department's investigation and the Task Force's report that revealed a pattern of civil rights violations caused by systemic deficiencies within CPD. After months of negotiations, the Attorney General's Office and the City of Chicago announced a draft consent decree on July 27, 2018. The Attorney General's Office posted the draft consent decree and invited Chicagoans to offer their input.

After months of negotiations, the Attorney General's Office and the City of Chicago announced a draft consent decree on July 27, 2018. The Attorney General's Office posted the draft consent decree and invited Chicagoans to offer their input.

The Attorney General's Office and the City carefully reviewed the nearly 1,700 comments received and negotiated changes to the consent decree based on the comments. The Attorney General's Office and the City then filed the revised consent decree in federal court on September 13, 2018. The federal judge overseeing the case accepted written comments on the draft consent decree and held public hearings. The judge approved the consent decree on January 31, 2019.

Consent Decree

Court Filings

Press Releases

INDEPENDENT MONITOR REPORTS

On March 1, 2019, Judge Dow appointed Maggie Hickey and her team as the independent monitor to help oversee implementation of the consent decree. The independent monitor will evaluate and issue public reports on whether the City and CPD are meeting the requirements of the consent decree. These reports can be found on the independent monitor's website at www.cpdmonitoringteam.com/reports/ and/or below.

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT WITH THE COALITION

In March of 2018, the Attorney General's Office, the City, and the Plaintiffs in Campbell v. Chicago, N.D. Ill. Case No. 17-cv-4467 and Communities United v. Chicago, N.D. Ill. Case No. 17-cv-7151 (collectively, the “Coalition”) entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). The MOA establishes a mechanism for meaningful community participation in the enforcement of the consent decree.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

As part of the process of drafting a consent decree, the Illinois Attorney General's Office worked with community organizations throughout Chicago to hold 14 Consent Decree Community Roundtables. The purpose of these roundtables was to ensure that all interested Chicagoans had a meaningful opportunity to provide input on police reform. The Attorney General's Office invited the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago to lead the community roundtables and present a summary report of key findings and themes from those conversations and other sources of input. IPCE's report summarizes the ideas, concerns and experiences community members shared during the community roundtables, during a number of small group conversations, and through feedback forms available on this website and emails.

CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER ENGAGEMENT

The Attorney General's Office also sought the input of CPD officers on the Department's challenges and the ways to address those challenges through a consent decree. The Attorney General's Office invited the Police Foundation, a national nonprofit, to facilitate a series of focus groups of sworn CPD officers. The Police Foundation's report summarizes the key findings and themes from these focus groups.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Documents

In 1994, following the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles and subsequent focus on how the federal government could better address police misconduct, Congress passed a law giving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) the authority to sue state and local governments to ban patterns or practices of unconstitutional policing, including the use of unnecessary or excessive force and discriminatory policing. Since then, DOJ has conducted more than two dozen investigations of law enforcement agencies throughout the country, including the Chicago Police Department.

Chicago Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) Documents

Following the November 2015 release of the video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago Police officer, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed a Police Accountability Task Force (PATF) to review the system of accountability, oversight and training for Chicago's police officers. In April 2016, the Task Force released a report with more than 100 recommendations for reform.