{"id":3357,"date":"2019-12-06T18:05:31","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T18:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagocouncil.org\/?p=3357"},"modified":"2019-12-06T18:20:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T18:20:14","slug":"cpca-ending-code-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chicagocouncil.org\/staging\/1601\/cpca-ending-code-of-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending Code of Silence Policies in the Chicago Police Department’s Collective Bargaining Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability (CPCA) offers recommendations to end the provisions in Chicago Police Department’s Collective Bargaining Agreements that perpetuate the “Code of Silence” <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

According to the Better Government Association<\/a> (BGA), it was estimated in 2018 that the City of Chicago had spent over $700-million settling cases of police misconduct in the previous decade. The Chicago Tribune reports<\/a> that the City of Chicago has spent over $750-million on Chicago Police Officers\u2019 misconduct-related payouts, settlements, and losses at trial since 2004\u2014this includes civil rights cases, car crash claims, racial discrimination complaints, sexual harassment suits, and some other legal matters. The annual amount the city spent<\/a> paying the fees of private lawyers to defend the Chicago Police Department (CPD) against civil rights lawsuits has grown steadily from around $12.5-million in 2013 to over $30-million in 2018. As stated by attorney Stuart Chanen,<\/a> the City needs to “reevaluate the degree to which they\u2019ve allowed the [police unions] to drive civil rights defenses in a way that\u2019s very harmful to the citizens of the City of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The economic burden placed on Chicago tax-payers to pay for police corruption is a minor issue compared to the detrimental intergenerational affects such entrenched systemic CPD misconduct has had on our City\u2019s marginalized and divested communities. For instance, officers involved in or witnessing shootings are allowed a 24-hour grace period<\/a> before being required to submit statements to the Independent Police Review Authority. As a result, in 2015, this process led to the false statements of sixteen CPD personnel<\/a>, which demonized the teenage victim, Laquan McDonald<\/a>, and permitted his shooter, Jason Van Dyke, to avoid murder charges for almost a year.[<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police departments across the country have proven time and again that they do not have the capability, impartiality, or \u2013 frankly \u2013 the willingness to provide the internal oversight necessary to police themselves. Thanks to local journalists, Van Dyke was held accountable only after a judge ordered the release<\/a> of the dashcam footage to the public. None of the cameras on squad cars at the scene of Laquan McDonald\u2019s shooting, recorded sound and at least three did not work at all<\/a>. The Columbia Journalism Review<\/a> states that 80% of CPD dashcam systems present failed to record audio due to \u201coperator error or in some cases intentional destruction\u201d by the officers.[<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal consent decree, approved in January 2019, aims to dictate the direction of police reform<\/a> in Chicago, likely for decades to come. While the consent decree is certainly a step in the right direction, \u201cno part of that decree transforms the deeply rooted biases and barriers to justice<\/a> that are inscribed within the Chicago police union contracts.\u201d <\/strong>There are three collective bargaining agreements governing the supervisory positions at the Chicago Police Department. These current contracts \u2013 all of which expired almost three years ago and are expected to enter arbitration this month \u2013 include specific \u201climitations on transparency and protections that inhibit accountable government\u201d by enabling officers to lie about misconduct<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition for Police Contract Accountability (CPCA) is a group of local organizations joined in their advocacy calling for the end of union contract provisions that enable the \u201ccode of silence\u201d<\/a> inside the CPD. In addition to the Civil Liberties & Police Accountability Committee<\/a> of Chicago Appleseed<\/a> and the Chicago Council of Lawyers<\/a>, coalition members include ACLU of Illinois<\/a>, Action Now Institute<\/a>, Better Government Association<\/a>, BPI<\/a>, BYP100<\/a>, Chicago Lawyers\u2019 Committee for Civil Rights<\/a>, Community Renewal Society<\/a>, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs<\/a> (JCUA), A Just Harvest<\/a>, Showing Up for Racial Justice<\/a> (SURJ), Southsiders Organized for Unity & Liberation<\/a> (SOUL), ONE Northside<\/a>, and the Workers Center for Racial Justice<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition for Police Contracts Accountability believes that until the harmful provisions in police contracts are changed, CPD officers will continue to operate under a separate \u2013 and ultimately unequal \u2013 system of justice<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the Chicago Police Department has had a \u201ccode of silence\u201d that allows officers to hide misconduct. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 7 and the Illinois Policemen\u2019s Benevolent and Protective Association (PBPA) union contracts with the City of Chicago effectively make this \u201ccode of silence\u201d official policy, making it too hard to identify police misconduct and too easy for police officers to lie about it and hide it.[<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

CPCA has provided fourteen recommendations to the City Council and Mayor of Chicago to eliminate the police contract provisions<\/a> \u201cthat discourage people from filing complaints, make it easy for officers to conceal the truth, and obstruct investigations into claims of misconduct.” The fourteen recommendations<\/a> include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n