Groups seek court oversight of Chicago police reforms

Chicago — Several leading community groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Chicago Wednesday in a bid to bypass or even scuttle a draft agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice that seeks to reform the nation’s second largest police force without federal court oversight.

The more than 100-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago argues that an overhaul of Chicago’s 12,000-officer force in the wake of a damning civil rights report in January can’t work without the intense scrutiny of a court-appointed monitor answerable to a judge.

“Absent federal court supervision, nothing will improve,” the lawsuit says. “It is clear that federal court intervention is essential to end the historical and on-going pattern and practice of excessive force by police officers in Chicago.”

While President Donald Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has expressed skepticism about court involvement, President Barack Obama’s administration saw it as vital to successful reforms. Obama’s Justice Department typically took a city reform plan to a judge to make it legally binding in the form of a consent decree.

Wednesday’s lawsuit — which names Black Lives Matters Chicago among the plaintiffs — asks for a federal court to intervene and order sweeping reforms to end the “abusive policies and practices undergirding the alleged constitutional and state law violations.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration said earlier this month that a draft deal negotiated by the city and the Justice Department — one that foresees a monitor not selected by a court — is being reviewed in Washington. Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malle cautioned last week that “there is no agreement at this time.”

A lead attorney in the new lawsuit, Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor and outspoken advocate for far-reaching police reforms, said in a telephone interview that reports about the draft influenced the decision to sue now.

“This is the community stepping up when the government refuses to act and when it has long been clear that the city is incapable of acting on its own,” he said.

If the judge presiding over the new lawsuit sides with the community groups, the court could mandate reforms. But Futterman said he hopes Emanuel will choose to work with the groups instead to draw up a comprehensive reform plan that the court and a court-appointed monitor would oversee.

“This is a real test for the mayor as to whether he is truly committed to police reform in Chicago,” Futterman said.

Before Trump’s inauguration in January, the Justice Department issued a scathing 161-page report following a yearlong investigation that found deep-rooted problems led to serious civil rights violations by Chicago police, including a tendency to use force even when suspects posed no threat and a “pervasive cover-up culture” among officers.

Emanuel committed to a consent decree in a joint statement with the Justice Department when the civil rights report was released in January and before the Trump administration made its reservations about court oversight clear. Emanuel has also said repeatedly that Chicago will push ahead with reforms, no matter what. His administration has established a new police oversight agency and adopted other practices to hold officers accountable.

The Justice Department launched the investigation in 2015 after the release of police dashboard camera video showing a white officer shooting a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, 16 times as he appeared to walk away from police holding a small, folded knife.