“Typically, the Police Board announces three finalists to the mayor and to the public. The mayor then interviews the finalists and there are opportunities for public vetting, feedback, confirmation hearings. And here, in contrast, the mayor announced her pick the day after the finalists names were made public,” explained Craig Futterman, director of the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project at the University of Chicago Law School.

The process of choosing Chicago’s next police superintendent is led—per city ordinance—by the Police Board rather than the mayor. However, Lightfoot, who served as the president of the Police Board the last time a superintendent was selected, publicly stated in April that she had been considering Brown for the job since December, far before his name appeared on the Police Board shortlist.

“Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of community oversight of the police is having a meaningful role in selecting the chief… Here, you have the police board, which is supposed to be a proxy for a community, under the mayor’s control, both appointed and removed by the mayor,” Futterman said, echoing criticisms made by progressive organizations and elected officials.

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