CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel is asking federal and county prosecutors to help determine who has been making racist comments over Chicago Police Department radio frequencies.
Emanuel on Friday penned a letter asking the agencies to open a hate crime investigation after dispatchers and police recently heard someone use the "n-word" over the police radio a number of times.
On March 13, a man's voice was heard on a police radio frequency saying "typical f------ n-------" and "Black Lives Matter, my ass." The comments were interjected into a conversation between a black dispatcher and a black officer, according to a recording of the scanner chatter.
A week after the first incident, more racist language was broadcast using police channels, with the person saying this time: "Will you shoot all these g------ n------ and get it over with?"
Emanuel's letter to prosecutors indicates that racial slurs were broadcast over police radio channels at least three separate times.
Emanuel has asked Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois Zachary Fardon to launch a hate crime investigation. He said in his letter that the police department has had previous problems with people who aren't in law enforcement accessing police frequencies.
"The language used and the racial intolerance expressed do not represent the values of our police department or our city," Emanuel said in the letter. "We are at our best when we hold ourselves to the highest standards."
Police and the Office of Emergency Manage and Communications, which handles police dispatch, have said that the comments appear to have come from an unauthorized user.
Police officials said at a recent press conference that there was little they could do to keep outsiders off their channels, but that they'd take more steps to flag them.
"Unfortunately that [radio] equipment is available out there for people to purchase, so until we get a handle on that, these incidents could occur," newly named interim Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. "We need to stress to our people to use proper radio procedure and proper equipment so we can narrow those incidents down."
A police statement said the department is working to determine who is illegally accessing the police frequency and broadcasting the racial slurs.
"We have confirmed these are coming from external, unauthorized radios accessing emergency frequencies," police said in the statement. "At this time, there is no evidence that this individual is a city employee, however, [police and the Office of Emergency Management] continue to investigate."
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