Chicago Police Department Consent Decree

Throughout late 2021 and 2022, the Coalition has sent multiple letters to CPD and submitted several sets of public comments advocating extensive changes to CPD’s policies governing its Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA), which investigates alleged officer misconduct in certain types of cases, and recommends discipline. In late-Dec. 2022, CPD issued the finalized BIA policies. The final versions adopted several important Coalition recommendations:

• Language clarifying that, under the Illinois SAFE-T Act, a sworn affidavit is not required to file a complaint against a nonsupervisory officer.
• Provisions ensuring that investigations are concluded with fewer delays.
• Clearer procedures for opening parallel criminal investigations.
• Giving authority to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) over instances where officers are accused of sexual misconduct, instead of allowing those complaints to be investigated internally by BIA.

Documents:
+Coalition Letter on CPD BIA Policies (2021-11-12)
+Coalition Letter on CPD BIA Policies (2021-12-23)
+Public Comment on March 2022 BIA Special Order (2022-03-28)
+Coalition Letter on March 2022 BIA Special Order (2022-04-20)
+Coalition Letter on Community Engagement Failures on BIA Policies (2022-05-12)
+Coalition Letter on May 2022 BIA Policies (2022-05-13)
+Public Comment re June 2022 BIA Policies (2022-06-24)
+Public Comment Regarding October 2022 Draft Policies Governing CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs (2022-11-28)
+Coalition Public Comment on BIA Special Orders (s08-01-04 and 08_2025-02-07)

In late 2022, the Chicago Police Department released a draft Special Order updating its policy on body worn cameras.  Body worn cameras are crucial for holding officers accountable for following CPD policies and punishing any misconduct.

The Coalition sent a letter demanding significant changes to the Special Order, including:

• Requiring officers who shoot, kill or use force against a community member (or are present when another officer does so) to keep their body worn cameras activated until the end of their tour of duty or until they submit to an interview by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
• Beefing up supervisory review and auditing of body worn camera footage.
• Recording any time an officer asks for consent to search a person or their belongings (such as their car) and the person’s response to that request.
• Utilizing technology to ensure that officers don’t view body camera footage before writing serious incident reports or providing interviews to COPA or the Bureau of Internal Affairs.

CPD released an updated draft of this policy in 2023, on which the Coalition again provided comments

The Coalition provided comments on a December 2024 draft policy regarding CPD officers’ activation and use of in-car cameras (dash cams). The Coalition again demanded that officers keep their in-car cameras activated throughout an on-scene interviews after they shoot or kill someone, to prevent collusion and to promote accuracy and accountability.

Documents:
+Coalition Letter re Body Worn Camera Policy (2022-12-23)
+Coalition Letter re Body Worn Camera Policy (2023-12-22)
+Coalition Comment on In-Car Video Policy (2024-12-20)

CPD released a Department Notice announcing a “Pilot Program” called “Community Engagement in Policy Development” in early 2023.  The Coalition questioned why this was termed a “Pilot Program,” given that community engagement is a fundamental requirement of the Consent Decree, and what criteria CPD would use to evaluate the program. In March 2025, CPD released a new Special Order regarding Community Engagement in policy and training. While the Special Order responds to some of the Coalition’s feedback, more work is needed:

• CPD should explain the results of its community engagement “pilot program,” if any.
• CPD must publicly address the community input it receives, by making responsive policy changes or explaining in writing why it will not adopt changes recommended by the community. 
• Members of the public should have at least one month to submit comments on draft policies.
• When CPD posts a policy for public comment, it should also post a plain-language summary. 
• CPD must explain how community members and organizations can become “partners” and can join the advisory committees that CPD has established. Those partnerships must include people from a variety of viewpoints, including viewpoints critical of CPD.
• CPD must do sustained outreach to specific communities that often have negative interactions with police, including Black and Brown people, young people, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, people who are homeless, people returning from prison or on parole, and immigrants.
• CPD must do direct outreach to grassroots community organizations, schools, universities, faith-based and religious organizations, advocacy organizations, and service agencies. 
• CPD must ensure that all materials promoting opportunities for community input are translated into Spanish and other languages.

Documents:
+Coalition Comment on CPD Community Engagement Pilot Program (2023-03-07)
+2025-03-31 Coalition Comment Community Engagement Special Order S02-08

Documents:
+Comment on CPD Community Policing Mission and Vision (12-23-2021)

The Coalition has submitted several sets of recommendations to improve the Community Commission on Mental Health Equity and CPD’s policies on Crisis Intervention Training.

Documents:
+Communities United parties memo to CCMHE re CIT Policies (2021-11-15)
+Comment on CPD Policies on Crisis and Mental Health Interactions (2023-02-20)
+Comment on CIT Special Order 05-14 (2024-07-14)

As part of overhauling its use-of-force policies, CPD drafted a policy on reporting firearm pointing incidents.  In July 2019, the Communities United parties commented that the draft policy deviated in several ways from the requirements of the Consent Decree.  CPD finalized its Firearm Pointing Incidents Policy in November 2019 without incorporating our feedback.

CPD released an updated draft of its Firearm Pointing Incidents Policy in March 2025. The Coalition commented that CPD’s policy continues to permit officers to use excessive and unreasonable force. We recommended that CPD’s policy should be changed in the following ways:

• Pointing a gun at a person should be considered a use of deadly force and reported as such under CPD’s policy.
• CPD should prohibit pointing guns at children (unless the child is armed and presents an imminent threat).
• CPD should prohibit pointing guns at people who are handcuffed, subdued, or otherwise compliant.
• More supervisory review of gun-pointing incidents is needed to ensure officers comply with CPD policy and the law.
• Unholstering, displaying, or placing a firearm in “low ready” position by an officer should be reportable as a use of force.

Documents:
+CU Letter to CPD re draft Firearm Pointing Policy (2019-07-31)
+2025-03-31 Coalition Comment on Firearm Pointing Special Order S03-22

In 2020-21, the Coalition extensively negotiated with CPD to reform its policies on police treatment of protesters. In Dec. 2022, CPD issued the finalized First Amendment policy. CPD made many important changes the Coalition advocated for, including:

• Officers cannot arrest a protester unless they pose an immediate threat to a person’s safety or property or they have ignored a “crowd dispersal order.”
• Officers cannot use pepper spray against protesters unless there is a threat or attack against a person or property, and must first give a verbal warning.
• Officers must clearly communicate any crowd dispersal order in multiple ways to ensure that everyone in the crowd can understand, including people with disabilities and limited English proficiency.

The Coalition proposed specific accountability rules that would require CPD supervisors to review video footage of officers’ response to protests, and would require the Superintendent to suspend officers whose actions or alleged actions demonstrate that they present a threat to the community and/or the Department.  CPD has not adopted the Coalition’s accountability proposal.

In the Spring of 2024, without notice to the community or the Coalition, CPD released a draft mass arrest policy (Coordinated Multiple Arrests) that significantly deviated from the negotiated First Amendment policy, the prevailing Constitutional standards, and the Consent Decree.  The Coalition filed a notice of intended enforcement of the Consent Decree and an enforcement motion to correct these violations in advance of the Democratic National Convention that was held in Chicago in August 2024.  The Coalition’s efforts achieved significant changes to the mass arrest policy, as detailed in subsequently filed status reports.

Documents:
+Coalition Supplementary Comments on dispersals (2020-10-29)
+Coalition Letter to the City on Dispersals (2020-11-18) 
+Coalition Comments on First Amendment Policy (2021-01-13)
+Coalition Accountability Proposal Rights of Protesters (2021-05-12)
+2024-03-13 Coalition Enforcement Letter re Coordinated Multiple Arrest Policy
+2024-03-13 Notice of the Coalition’s Intent to Initiate Enforcement Proceedings
+2024-06-27 Coalition Status Report on Mass Arrest Enforcement Motion
+2024-08-08 Coalition Status Report on Mass Arrest Training

The U.S. Department of Justice concluded in 2017 that the Chicago Police Department had a pattern or practice of excessive and unreasonable force, including “shooting at fleeing suspects who present no immediate threat.”  The DOJ concluded that CPD should have a foot pursuit policy.  The lack of a policy, according to DOJ, put “officers and the public in danger and result[ed] in unreasonable uses of force.” In 2021, after several more tragic foot chases that ended in officers shooting community members, the CPD announced an interim foot pursuit policy.  The Coalition unsuccessfully demanded a seat at the table to negotiate the final foot pursuit policy with CPD.  It also submitted a public comment and a letter regarding shortcomings with the published draft policy in 2021.  The final foot pursuit policy went into effect in June 2022 and incorporated some but not all of the Coalition’s suggested changes. For example, under the new policy:

• Officers cannot chase someone simply because they are running away from a police stop.
• Officers cannot chase someone with a suspected medical or mental health issue that poses a risk to their own safety.
• Supervisors must report all foot chases for review.

Documents:
+Coalition Letter Demanding Negotiation of CPD Foot Chase Policy (2021-05-06)
+Public Comment Stop the Chicago Police Department’s Deadly Foot Chases (2021-06-08)
+Coalition Letter Commending on Draft Foot Chase Policy (2021-07-15)

In June 2023, the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago proposed a stipulation amending the Consent Decree to cover “stop and frisk,” formally called investigatory stops and protective pat-downs, as well as enforcement of Chicago’s gang and narcotics loitering ordinances.  The Coalition successfully requested that the Court hold a fairness hearing on the proposed stipulation. The Communities United and Campbell parties each filed comments on the proposed stipulation in August 2023, and also provided oral testimony at the fairness hearing.

Approximately one year later, in August 2024, CPD released a draft policy suite to implement the stop and frisk stipulation.  The Coalition provided comments as well as a detailed letter describing the ways in which the Fourth Amendment and Police Encounters policy suite should be improved to comport with the Constitution, the Illinois Civil Rights Act, the Consent Decree and best practices from other jurisdictions.

Documents:
+2023-07-23 Coalition’s Motion for Fairness Hearing re Stops and Loitering Ordinances
+2023-08-03 CU’s Position Statement on Parties’ Amended Stipulation on Stops Frisks and Loitering
+2023-08-13 Campbell Position Statement on Parties’ Amended Stipulation on Stop Frisks and Loitering Enforcement
+2024-09-09 Coalition Comments on Stop and Frisk Policies
+2024-11-08 Coalition Letter Police Encounters Fourth Amendment
+2024-09-09 Coalition Comments on Gang and Narcotics Loitering Policies
+2025-01-24 Coalition Ltr Intended Enforcement Fourth Amendment Policy Suite
+1277 - Motion to Enforce Consent Decree 806(i) Prohibiting Police Searches Based on Odor of Cannabis

For years, ACLU and other community and civil rights groups have advocated for CPD to end its highly inaccurate and racially discriminatory gang database.  The gang database is riddled with faulty information and never was demonstrated to be a necessary or effective law enforcement tool.  In 2022, CPD announced a new iteration of the gang database called the Criminal Enterprise Information System (“CEIS”).  The Coalition strongly objected to the CEIS and called for a continued moratorium on CPD using any version of its gang database. 

Documents: 
+Public Comment on CPD CEIS Policy (2022-12-01)

ACLU and our Coalition partners have pointed out the deficiencies in CPD’s Human Rights and Biased Policing policies through multiple letters and a “deliberative dialogue.”  In 2022, CPD finalized these policies without undertaking the deep community engagement process that the Coalition had sought, which would have provided a voice to those most impacted by CPD’s racially biased practices. The Coalition further demanded that CPD policy: prohibit police from targeting for policing particular communities, events and/or places based on race/ethnicity; add protections specific to gender bias, gender expression, socio-economic class, and LGBTQ+ identity, and incarceration status; require accommodations for people with disabilities; and ensure protection from retaliation for people who report biased policing.

Documents:
+CU Letter to CPD re Human Rights Draft Policies (2019-09-25)
+Coalition Letter re Human Rights policies (2022-01-17)
+Coalition Letter re Human Rights Policies (2022-07-15)

Under federal law, undocumented immigrants may qualify for visas to stay in the United States if a government body certifies their application for legal status (T and U visas).  In early 2023, CPD proposed a draft policy to handle processing of these certification requests.  The Coalition commented on this draft, stating that the policy was incomplete and failed to follow federal and state laws.  The Coalition further commented on CPD’s revised policy in December 2024.

Documents:
+Coalition Public Comment on CPD’s U and T Visa Certification Policy (2023-02-27)
+2024-12-22 Coalition Submitted Comments-CPD T and U Visa Policy

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Consent Decree require CPD to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities in all of their interactions with police – whether as victims, witnesses, community members, or crime suspects. Led by our co-counsel at Equip for Equality, the Coalition has provided extensive comments on two drafts of CPD’s policies on police interactions with people with disabilities.  In our most recent comments, we suggested, among other changes, that the policy must protect people with mental health disabilities; provide more accurate guidance on the reasonable accommodation requirements of the ADA; and provide better explanations and examples of how to de-escalate situations involving people with disabilities; and require CPD to report data on how they are treating people with disabilities.

 Documents:
+2023-04-28 Coalition Letter to City re Disability Policy Comment
+2024-09-19 Coalition Comment on CPD Disabilities Policy

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Consent Decree require CPD to provide meaningful access to police services and activities by people with limited English proficiency (LEP) – those who do not speak English as their primary language or who have a limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English. The Coalition has provided oral testimony as well as written comments to CPD regarding its policy on interacting with LEP individuals.  Among other changes, the Coalition has demanded that CPD provide in-person interpreters for Miranda warnings and limit the circumstances in which children are asked to interpret for their parents with LEP.

Documents:
+2024-08-10 Public Comment re Interactions with Persons with LEP
+2024-11-22 Coalition Letter re Interactions with Persons with Limited English Proficiency

Documents:
+CU Comments to Police Board Policies (2019-07-31)

Documents:
+Coalition PCI Public Comment (2022-06-22)

In May 2022, the Coalition sent CPD a letter, based on feedback from many religious groups, advocating for policy changes that would ensure people’s religious freedom is respected by officers. In Dec. 2022, CPD issued the finalized Religious Interactions policy. The final version adopted many of the Coalition’s recommendations, including that officers cannot require someone to remove religious clothing or head coverings unless removal is justified by compelling safety or security needs. 

Documents:
+2022-05-11 Comment on CPD Religious Interactions Policy
+2022-05-31 Ltr from Coalition re Religious Interactions

In January 2021, the Coalition filed a motion to enforce the Consent Decree to stop CPD’s pattern of excessive force and discrimination against Black and Brown neighbors during the execution of search warrants. This motion resulted in an order confirming that CPD’s search warrant policies, practice, training and accountability mechanisms are covered by the Consent Decree, and a process to negotiate a new policy.  The Coalition reached agreement with CPD on many changes to the policy and confidentially submitted remaining areas of disagreement to the Court for resolution. The Court issued an order resolving those issues in May 2024.

Documents:
+2021-01-13 Coalition Search Warrant Enforcement Motion
+Coalition Fact Sheet Support the Anjanette Young Ordinance 05-19-2021
+2024-05-14 Resolution of Search Warrant Issues Order
+2025-03-14 Coalition Comments-CPD SW Policies

The Consent Decree requires CPD to prohibit officers from committing sexual misconduct, and a process for holding officers accountable if they commit such misconduct.  The Coalition commented in December 2022 regarding the significant gaps in CPD’s draft policy, including arguing that the definition of “sexual misconduct” is too narrow, and that the policy fails to provide sufficient preventive and accountability measures.

Documents:
+2022-12-21 Coalition Letter to City re Sexual Misconduct

Many Coalition members devoted hundreds of unpaid hours as members of the Community Use of Force Working Group, providing feedback and recommendations regarding CPD’s suite of policies governing the use of force.  These policies cover overarching requirements for de-escalation, restrictions on particular types of weapons such as batons, pepper spray and Tasers, and rules to promote accountability and transparency when officers violate the policies and the law against excessive force.  A summary of these negotiations and their results is available in the following two reports.

Documents:
+2022-09-22 UOFWG Report
+2023-03-20 UOFWG Public Report-CPD Training

The Consent Decree requires CPD to engage the community and account for community feedback in developing its policies and strategies.  To promote CPD’s compliance with this requirement, the Coalition proposed a working groups process in 2022.  These working groups have not been created.

Documents:
+Working Groups Proposal Coalition 5.5.22

In its investigation into the Chicago Police Department, the U.S. Department of Justice found that CPD commonly stopped and searched Black youth without a lawful basis as a result of racial stereotypes. The Consent Decree therefore requires CPD to develop policies to divert youth away from the criminal justice system, treat them in age-appropriate ways, and de-escalate interactions with young people.  The Coalition has commented on two drafts of CPD’s policies on interactions with young people, recommending that CPD must overhaul these policies to focus on the wellbeing of young people and the elimination of racial bias in officers’ interactions with young people.

Documents:
+2023-04-21 Public Comment on CPD Youth Interactions Policy
+2023-06-20 Coalition Letter re CPD Youth Interactions Policy
+2023-12-12 Public Comment on CPD Youth Interactions Policy
+2023-12-22 Coalition Letter re Youth Interactions Policy