Chicago Mayoral Candidate Questionnaire: Dorothy Brown's Answers

BROWN:

Violence and harassment of people from any community, especially the transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming community, will not be tolerated in my administration, under any circumstances.  I will create a hotline and other mechanism within the Mayor’s Office for reporting directly to the Mayor’s Office the failure of CPD to address issues of violence and harassment against any community, especially for transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming community to ensure that all complaints are investigated and handled properly.  There will be a continuous evaluation of CPD’s progress in meeting the goals of the consent decree for community policing and other areas to reduce crime in all communications. 

I have been a long-time proponent of implicit bias training for law enforcement. Implicit (unconscious) bias is a form of prejudice that occurs when individuals make judgments at least partially influenced by gender, race or other prohibited factors without realizing they have done so, usually based on societal stereotypes or their own personal experiences.  Implicit biases can affect how police officers react in tense situations, such as encounters with rebellious or troubled youth, responding to hate crimes, or helping victims of domestic abuse. To help ensure these daily encounters remain professional, supervisors and officers must become aware of their own implicit biases through a no-fault training process.  

I believe this issue highlights the disparate treatment of women in a world run mostly by men.  Child care responsibilities still fall heavily on the shoulders of mothers, especially the working moms who struggle to make ends meet.  The least that the City can do is provide a safe, secure and private area for mothers who need to pump breast milk.

As Mayor, I will require an assessment be done of each municipal building to determine where an appropriate space can be set up to accommodate mothers who pump breast milk.  This would apply to employees and customers.  The findings and recommendations would be included in the City’s capital plan and budget.      

The Department of Justice found numerous instances where police officers used deadly force in violation of the 4th amendment and Department Policy.  Among the violations identified were: 

• Shooting at fleeing suspects who present no immediate threat
• Lack of a foot pursuit policy
• Firing at vehicles without justification
• Officers exhibiting poor discipline in discharging weapons
• Officers making tactical decisions that unnecessarily increase the risk of deadly encounters, including failure to await backup, use of unsound tactics in approaching vehicles, and use of dangerous vehicle maneuvers

Also, the time has come to revive the principles and practices of community policing. The Department Justice noted Chicago has fallen behind in this effort.  The case for community policing was laid out succinctly. In another landmark study, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, published in February 1967 by the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of. The Commission diagnosed the problem between the community and police departments as follows:

“Citizen hostility toward the police is every bit as disruptive of peace and order, of course, as police indifference to or mistreatment of citizens. It is so obvious as almost to be a truism that residents will not obtain the police protection they badly want and need until policemen feel that their presence is welcome and that their problems are understood.  However, in the effort to achieve this state of affairs, the duty of taking the initiative clearly devolves on the police, both because they are organized and disciplined and because they are public servants sworn to protect every part of the community.  It is an urgent duty. Social tensions are growing and crime rates are mounting. Police agencies cannot preserve the public peace and control crime unless the public participates more fully than it now does in law enforcement. Bad community feeling does more than create tensions and engender actions against the police that in turn may embitter policemen and trigger irrational responses from them. It stimulates crime.” 

The President’s Commission noted that all police operations and administration should be guided by the principles of community relations. 

“Community relations are not exclusively a matter of special programs, but a matter that touches on all aspects of police work.  They must play a part in the selection, training, deployment, and promotion of personnel, in the execution of field procedures, in staff policymaking and planning, in the enforcement of departmental discipline, and in the handling of citizen’s complaints.” 

Lastly, the President’s Commission emphasized the role of changing attitudes among police officers as a necessary step to improving community relations, 

“Improving community relations involves not only instituting programs and changing procedures and practices, but re-examining fundamental attitudes.  The police will have to learn to listen patiently and understandingly to people who are openly critical of them or hostile to them, since those people are precisely the ones with whom relations need to be improved.” 

These principles are as valid today as they were in 1967.  As Mayor, I will work with CPD to re-engage officers and residents with the principles and practices of community policing.  In addition to community policing, I will have a complete analysis of the CPD from the top to the bottom, looking at its organizational structure, managerial techniques, number of districts, number of supervisors to patrolmen, and the investigation techniques to ensure they are using 21^st century policing strategies.

My position on each of the recommendations is indicated below

• Eliminate the requirement of a sworn affidavit for investigating civilian complaints of misconduct. Yes, I favor elimination of the requirement.  It is burdensome and intimidating for civilians.
• Allow for the filing and investigation of anonymous complaints.  Yes, I favor anonymous complaints. In my current role as Clerk of the Circuit Court, I accept and investigate all complaints, including anonymous complaints.
• Prevent the disclosure of a complainant’s name prior to the interrogation of an accused officer.  No, I oppose this measure.  An officer should be afforded the same rights as any accused person, which is to know who the accuser is.  I would however, withhold information concerning the accusers address and other contact informaiton.
• Remove the ban on offering rewards to officers that cooperate or provide information on ongoing investigations. No, I oppose lifting the ban.  Instead, I would provide continuous ethics training for officers on their duty to report wrongdoing by fellow officers to their superiors.
• Eliminate the 24 hour delay on officer statements in shooting cases and create a clearly outlined process to receive statements from all officers involved in a timely manner.  Yes, I favor elimination of the 24 hour delay.
• Eliminate officer’s right to review and amend statements previously made to investigators. No, I oppose elimination. During an investigation into police misconduct, an officer’s may testify multiple times, based on the stage of an investigation.  In the first stage, a trained investigator will look at an officer’s initial testimony, plus other sources of information, such as body camera footage, witness statements, and forensic data to develop a preliminary picture of an incident.  In the second stage, the investigator may need to speak to a police officer again to develop a clearer, fuller understanding of an incident.  It is not impossible that an officer may amend his or her statement, based on the questions posed by the investigator in the second stage; and once he or she views the video, because the video may refresh the officer’s recollections.  The officer’s initial and revised statements should be maintained and preserved by the investigator and used to arrive at a judgment about the facts of the case and an officer’s culpability.  All statements should be maintained and officers disciplined for statements that are found to be deliberate untrue statements. Like any employee or citizen, police officers have due process rights.  When officers provide testimony, they should have the right to counsel in meetings with Management.  In turn, Management should keep an accurate and complete record of an officer’s testimony every time the officer makes a statement.  
• Allow past disciplinary records to be used in investigating and resolving present complaints. No, I oppose this measure.  The facts of each case should be investigated and established independently of any previous case.  However, when an officer is disciplined, the discipline should be progressive based upon prior the past discipline record.
• Eliminate the provision requiring the destruction of police misconduct records.  Yes, I would demand this change in cases of egregious misconduct. I believe in a system of progressive discipline for employees, whether they are sworn officers or civilians.  Typically, in a progressive discipline system, there are time limits for considering past misconduct when determining the level of discipline, up to and including termination.  No time limits, however, should be imposed on keeping records of egregious misconduct. I would however, permit a time limit on the maintenance of misconduct of a non-egregious nature.
• Eliminate the need for the Superintendent’s authorization to investigate complaints that are five years old or older. Yes, I agree with eliminating this requirement.  Complaints should be investigated regardless of how old they are, unless the officer is retired and is of no further harm to the public. Otherwise, in order to ensure that officers properly perform, investigations should be permitted to go forward regardless of how old, and the Superintendent should not have to give permission for them to go forward.
• Remove constraints on how interrogators can ask questions.  Yes, but only if the accused officer is guaranteed legal or union representation at an interrogation.
• Specify that information provided to officers prior to interrogations should be a general recitation of allegations. Yes, all officers should, at a minimum be given a general recitation of the allegations her or she is facing.
• Allow for the disclosure of the identities of officers who are the subject of civilian complaints. No, I oppose this measure because officers could become the target of retaliation, and there are certain personnel laws surrounding these matters.  Instead, I would continue the practice of removing officers from active patrol and give them administrative assignments pending completion of an investigation.  However, the point in which the situation becomes a criminal case is when the officers name will become public.
• Require officers to disclose secondary employment and any other pertinent information that may cause a conflict of interest in performing their duties as a sworn officer. Yes, I favor such disclosure.
• Reduce years of seniority for officers who have been repeatedly recommended for suspension because of findings of complaints filed against them. No, I oppose this measure because this probably infringes upon pension laws.  Years of seniority are used to determine promotional opportunities, pay rates and pension credits for officers and civilians.  I believe that suspensions without pay, termination in cases of egregious misconduct, and referral to the State’s Attorney for possible criminal prosecution are sufficient responses.

See my answer to question 8.

I favor removal of the requirement to report individuals who are listed in the gang database.  The database is rife with inaccuracies according to recent reports and needs to be overhauled.  It would be unfair to hold an individual for ICE based on unreliable sources of information.  I would keep the exemptions for prior recent felony convictions that occurred in the last six month.  However, I would also remove it for pending felony charges and open warrants because those individuals are innocent until proven guilty. 

I have always been committed to transparent, open government.  As Clerk of the Circuit Court, I have instructed my legal staff to reply to requests for information, even though the Office is not covered under the Freedom of Information Act.  As Mayor, I would require every city agency to submit monthly status reports on the number and nature of FOIA requests and identify expected dates of completion.  Periodically, I would have an independent auditor conduct a compliance audit of FOIA requests and hold agency heads accountable for failing to respond to requests in a timely manner. 

I would require law enforcement and private companies doing to establish and promulgate their policies on facial recognition technology.  For City agencies, especially the Chicago Police Department, I would require an independent review to be conduct conducted of the algorithms underlying facial recognition technology and the proposed uses.  If the audit reveals disparate outcomes based on racial or ethnic characteristics, then I will eliminate the technology.