ROGERS PARK — On Thursday, residents will have their last chance to provide feedback to some of the city's top legal experts and police officials who will be giving a presentation on the newly formed Police Accountability Task Force.
The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at Sullivan High School, 6631 N. Bosworth Ave., and will include an overview of the task force, as well as a two-hour public comment period, ending at 9 p.m.
Those wishing to comment must sign up in person and are limited to two minutes.
Created in the wake of the Laquan McDonald case, the task force Thursday will consist of: Lori Lightfoot, president of the Chicago Police Board; Sergio Acosta, an attorney and former federal prosecutor; Joe Ferguson, inspector general of the City of Chicago; Hiram Grau, the former director of the Illinois State Police and deputy superintendent of the Chicago Police department; and Randolph Stone, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and director of the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Project Clinic. Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, serves as an advisor to the task force.
The group has been charged with creating more independent oversight for police misconduct, providing better guidance on how the city should handle releasing videos that show police-involved shootings, and finding better ways to deal with officers who have repeated complaints made against them.
The meeting in Rogers Park on Thursday is the fourth and final installment, after an earlier meeting Tuesday in Pilsen.
By March 31, findings from the meetings will be presented to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City Council, Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said.
"The task force aims to actively engage community, victims’ rights, law enforcement, youth, religious and elected leaders to ensure the recommendations are based on input from all parts of the city," Moore wrote to residents advertising the meeting.
In January, Moore hosted a private meeting he called a "Police Accountability Lunch" at Willye B. White Park with Emanuel, Cmdr. Roberto Nieves of the Rogers Park Police District, and various community leaders to discuss crime in the neighborhood.
The meeting was not publicly advertised, but was held at the same time as a police recruitment event also at the park's fieldhouse — though some residents did manage to get a photo with the mayor.
A staffer for Moore said on Moore's Facebook page, "the mayor said he is on a listening tour now, and that he would report back later" on action items taken from the meeting.
Emanuel is not included on the lineup for Thursday's public meeting.
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