People walk past a mural of Adam Toledo on Ogden Avenue in Chicago on March 15, 2022. Toledo was fatally shot by police Officer Eric Stillman in 2021. The ongoing fight over the future of police discipline in Chicago has reached the Circuit Court of Cook County, and while attorneys for both the city and the Fraternal Order of Police polish their arguments, a judge has ordered that all pending Chicago Police Board cases be paused until at least Feb. 24.
Evidentiary hearings have already concluded in three of the 20 cases, but the judge’s order bars the board from taking action on those or any of the other 17 cases that now sit in temporary limbo. Approval of the contract was split into two votes: one for the economic package, which quickly passed, and another to address the arbitration award. Before the arbitration award was first voted down in December, James Franczek, the city’s chief labor counsel, warned that overturning Benn’s ruling would be a steep hill to climb.
The City Council last week, at the direction of allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson, deferred another vote on the arbitration award, but it wasn’t clear whether the mayor and his aldermanic supporters could again collect the requisite 30 votes to defeat the award. Meanwhile, with its future in question, the Police Board now operates under the leadership of Kyle Cooper, an attorney who was selected late last year to succeed Ghian Foreman as board president.