Community Representatives From Chicago’s Use of Force Community Working Group Release Public Report

Community Working Group Use of Force Press Release

The community members who served on the City of Chicago’s Use of Force Community Working Group today released their first public report, which describes fundamental changes to Chicago Police Department (CPD) Use of Force policies and highlights ongoing deficiencies in need of immediate change. The report is available at https://www.law.uchicago.edu/clinics/mandel/police.

The Report was written by the 31 community members who served on the Working Group, first convened as a part of the federal civil rights Consent Decree over Chicago Police Department (CPD) in the summer of 2020. It was not authored or approved by the four Working Group members employed by the City of Chicago, CPD, or Illinois Attorney General’s Office. It is the Report of the community members who served on the Working Group.

“The Community Working Group caused the CPD to transform its basic rules about when and how police officers may use force against community members,” said Craig Futterman, University of Chicago law professor and founder and director of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, whose law students participated in Working Group meetings, provided research on best practices, and helped to draft the Report. “These changes have the potential to dramatically reduce CPD violence and make the people of Chicago safer. The policies represent an entirely new approach to policing and the use of force in Chicago.”

Read more at Community Renewal Society

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