Chicago risks being held in contempt of court if Mayor Brandon Johnson insists on slashing spending and staff integral to the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered reform push, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned this week.
In a letter to Johnson dated Tuesday and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Raoul expressed “grave concern” about cuts targeting CPD units responsible for implementing sweeping changes mandated in a federal consent decree.
Raoul bluntly told Johnson, “I strongly urge you to reconsider these proposed cuts.”
“Under the consent decree, the City must provide the `necessary and reasonable financial resources’ required to fulfill those obligations. Cutting much-needed resources from the unit within CPD responsible for developing and implementing the policies, training, and oversight required by the consent decree is directly contrary to that obligation,” that attorney general wrote.
“Adopting the currently proposed cuts would place the City at significant risk of being held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the consent decree. I have copied the City’s legal counsel on this letter, which serves as notice under the consent decree of my office’s intent to seek court enforcement of the City’s obligations if the currently proposed cuts to CPD’s budget are adopted and implemented.”
Raoul flexed his legal muscle on the same day the federal monitor overseeing compliance with the consent decree warned Johnson’s plan could deal a “devastating blow” to the reform efforts.
“The proposed budget cuts would be a step backward for the CPD reform process at a pivotal point — just when progress is starting to be felt,” former federal prosecutor Maggie Hickey said during a status hearing in the federal court case.
A spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry and Raoul “are engaged in ongoing discussions regarding his concerns with an intent towards finding a resolution.”
Spokespeople for Police Supt. Larry Snelling didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johnson’s proposed $17.3 billion budget includes a 45% cut — from $6.7 million to $3.7 million — to CPD’s Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, which is charged with implementing the consent decree. The office’s staff would be cut from 65 budgeted employees to 28.
Equally troubling to police reform advocates is a proposed 28% cut in the budget of CPD’s Training and Support Group, which would lose 90 jobs.
The police department was placed under federal court oversight in the wake of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the attorney general’s office.
The latest progress report issued by Hickey’s team found CPD had fully complied with only 7% of consent decree provisions by the end of 2023. To reach full compliance, CPD first must create policy, then train officers on the policy and implement the changes.
Raoul joins a chorus of reforms advocates who have sounded the alarm about Johnson’s proposal to gut the police units vital to getting Chicago out from under the costly constraints of the consent decree.
Key critics include Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson, the city’s former longtime inspector general, and Robert Boik, former executive director of the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform. Boik was fired as head of the Office of Constitutional Policing in August 2022 after he criticized then-Police Supt. David Brown’s decision to reassign 46 officers under his supervision.
Facing a nearly $1 billion shortfall, Johnson ordered all city departments to cut their budgets by at least 3%. He ended up increasing CPD’s annual budget slightly — to $2.1 billion — but only to cover the 5% raises he gave rank-and-file officers when he extended and sweetened a contract negotiated by his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, Supt. Snelling said his first priority was “to make sure that we had people to continue to work toward the consent decree.”
“Those were the positions that we fought for first,” he said. “We’re going to continue to fight for them because this consent decree — the progress that I believe we’re making right now — I don’t want to break that momentum.”
Hickey warned the proposed budget cuts would be “a step backward for the CPD reform process at a pivotal point — just when progress is starting to be felt.”
She said CPD’s deft handling of the Democratic National Convention “demonstrated that it can rise to the standards of the consent decree and Chicago’s community when reform, community engagement and procedural justice are fully supported and fully resourced.”
In his letter to Johnson, Raoul acknowledged “budget constraints require difficult choices to be made.
“But a binding court-enforced consent decree takes certain choices off the table,” the attorney general wrote.
Read the full letter here: