Community groups were included in the process through a memorandum of agreement filed in federal court last week. The agreement lets the community coalition submit ideas as the decree is being drafted, contest the final proposal in court if it finds it wanting and ask the court to enforce the decree if necessary.

Like a consent decree, the memorandum is intended to outlast elected officials who will be gone from office long before reforms have been completed and to protect the decree from incoming officials who might oppose it.

Words on court documents are, of course, just the beginning. But if the agreement works as envisioned, minority communities in Chicago who have borne the brunt of police abuses for decades will play a significant hand in shaping a new model of police accountability that benefits everyone.

Read more at The New York Times