DOWNTOWN — The American Civil Liberties Union Wednesday filed suit against the city in an effort to ensure that the Chicago Police Department protects black and Latino residents who have mental and physical disabilities.
The suit asks that a federal judge oversee the reform effort sparked by the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald and ensure officers no longer routinely violate the civil rights of black and Latino residents by using excessive force, as determined by an investigation by the U.S Justice Department. That inquiry also found that officers were poorly trained and lacked supervision.
"CPD is broken," said Karen Sheley, director of police practices at the ACLU of Illinois. "The Department of Justice report confirmed what people of color and those with disabilities have long known. Officers use force too often and without justification."
READ THE FULL DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REPORT HERE
Two other lawsuits — one filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan with the support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the other filed by Black Lives Matter Chicago and other anti-police-violence groups — also demand that a consent decree be imposed on the Police Department.
That would mean reform efforts would be overseen daily by an independent monitor who would report to a federal judge — and would include strict deadlines and a robust enforcement mechanism.
Those lawsuits are not sufficient to ensure that "impacted communities" have a seat at the table while the agreement is crafted, Sheley said at a news conference.
A spokesman for the city's Law Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
The Trump administration has declined to negotiate a consent decree to map police reform efforts, with a Justice Department spokesman saying that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will oppose "any measure that will endanger the lives of Chicago's residents or law enforcement by eroding the rule of law."
Fred Friedman, founder of Next Steps, an advocacy organization for those with mental illnesses, said he does not trust that police are adequately trained to help those suffering or in crisis.
"That's why I would run from the police," Friedman said.
Federal investigators found that officers routinely deployed stun guns "against people who posed no threat" and "use force against people in mental health crisis where force might have been avoided."
Those incidents include "a 65-year-old woman suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia" whom officers used a stun gun to subdue, according to federal investigators.
Three days after the Justice Department announced its findings, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson hosted a news conference to tout a new collaborative effort to ensure that everyone from 911 dispatchers to police, paramedics and hospital staff responds appropriately to a call involving someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
The federal investigators applauded Emanuel's "ambitious plan to quickly increase its cadre of officers who have received the 40-hour crisis-intervention training."
Since the beginning of 2015, the Police Department has received a fivefold increase in calls involving those suffering a mental health crisis, according to the report.
But the Police Department's effort needs more support to be sustainable and should be expanded to include enough officers to cover the entire city around the clock, according to federal investigators.
