A defining moment is at hand for the administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson. Having campaigned as a strong advocate for reimagining public safety, the mayor now confronts a test of his resolve on issues of police accountability and transparency.

The city’s pending contract with the Fraternal Order of Police contains a provision that, if ratified, will strike at the foundations of the oversight system erected in the years since reform of the Chicago Police Department became an urgent civil priority in the aftermath of the police murder of Laquan McDonald.

The provision at issue is the result of an arbitrator’s ruling that endorsed FOP’s effort to protect officers who have been found to have committed the most serious offenses — for which the discipline sought is termination or suspension of more than a year — to escape accountability by sending their cases to closed-door hearings before FOP-friendly arbitrators, rather than having their cases adjudicated before the Police Board, as is current practice.

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