Like Lightfoot, Brown’s downfall has everything to do with failing to make the city safer. He vowed to bring down the number of annual homicides to fewer than 300. Instead,760 homicides in 2020, more than 800 homicides in 2021 and nearly 700 in 2022. Carjackings surged. And when we spoke with aldermanic candidates during endorsement interviews, virtually every candidate said Chicagoans had told them the city’s No. 1 problem was the rising tide of violent crime.
Understanding that compliance is a yearslong endeavor, the department and City Hall have nonetheless consistently lagged in keeping up with the mandate’s deadlines., his point man for keeping the department on course with implementing the consent decree. Boik, who was CPD’s executive director of constitutional policing and reform, was let go after sending an email to Brown about the superintendent’s decision to move members of Boik’s staff to patrol duty.
For either Johnson or Vallas, building that trust starts with the selection of a police superintendent who commits to police reform not just with words but also with actions, and makes timely adherence to the consent decree nonnegotiable.
Stop it already. Same song and dance. It starts in the homes of the community and they have to want the change.