RIVER NORTH — Police Board President Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday police are overburdened with large-scale community problems, but have to deal better with changes demanded by the public in accountability and transparency.
"Welcome to the real world," Lightfoot said of police officers in remarks after addressing the City Club Tuesday. "The world is changing, and we need to adapt and change with it."
Calling it "an important historical moment in our city," Lightfoot said, "We must restore the trust of the people in our Police Department." She expressed sympathy for police officers overburdened in dealing with larger social issues, such as poverty, education, economic opportunity and mental disability, especially in neighborhoods such as Austin, Englewood and Roseland.
Lightfoot said those social ills, combined with "a seemingly relentless supply of illegal guns," made those areas dangerous to all those who live and work there, adding, "That fact completely changes the dynamics of policing in many neighborhoods."
According to Lightfoot, "The police are ill-equipped to address most of those communities' actual needs," including racial equality.
"We need to face these and other hard truths now," she added, and not wait for the findings of an ongoing federal Department of Justice probe that may takes years to conclude.
"We unfairly expect the police to take care of and solve these challenges," she said in a luncheon speech to the City Club at Maggiano's Banquets, 111 W. Grand Ave. "They need a fair and achievable job description."
Yet, while calling for "community investment," she added that police need to be better attuned to their communities and their needs, and "not just statistics on a page" in local crime data. She called for a renewed concentration on community policing, saying, "We need to get back to that place" where Chicago led the nation's police departments in innovations in that area.
Lightfoot described the "frustration, anger, skepticism" she said the public feels toward police "and all forms of government" in the current social atmosphere. She granted it was a two-way street as well, in that "many in our Department feel demoralized."
She called for "a significant course correction," especially in "community engagement," given the prevailing "lack of understanding and respect" officers have for their districts. , The search for a new superintendent is an opportunity to achieve that, she said.
Lightfoot acknowledged there is a reason for the so-called code of silence, in the camaraderie instilled in an environment where good cops are dependent even on bad cops "for their life and safety." She said the 39 applicants for the police superintendent position left vacant by Garry McCarthy were being asked how they would "incentivize" getting officers to inform on one another.
"Every single time there's a bad cop out there it hurts everybody," Lightfoot said. She insisted all that was needed was strong "leadership" and "diligence" in urging officers to alter their ways, along with an "early warning system" to identify problem cops.
"We need anybody who's a real leader, a great manager," Lightfoot said of the superintendent search.
The Police Board expects to submit a list of top candidates to Mayor Rahm Emanuel by the end of next month, she said. The board is not concerned with making sure the next top cop is African-American or a native Chicagoan, she said.
"I think we need the best candidate. Period. Full stop," she added.
Lightfoot has also been appointed to head the mayor's Task Force on Police Accountability, and said that group planned to hold four public forums before arriving at recommendations on changing policy on when police videos should be released and whether officers' names should be released in police shootings, as well as other issues.
While challenging police to make required changes, Lightfoot said, "I'm confident that the vast majority of officers out there are up to the challenge."
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