Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces committee to review Chicago Police Department use of force policies
Under pressure from Chicago activists demanding broad changes to how the city polices, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a task force to review the Police Department’s use of force policies.
The committee will include residents, students, lawyers, advocates and elected officials, Lightfoot said. Deputy Chief Ernest Cato, a veteran of the department who was a runner-up for the police superintendent job earlier this year, will co-chair the committee alongside activist Arewa Karen Winters, whose nephew Pierre Loury was killed by police.
Lightfoot’s task force was announced by the city on Monday amid national fallout from the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, though the mayor and police Superintendent David Brown said the group was created earlier this year as part of the city’s federal consent decree governing Police Department reforms.
Currently, Chicago police officers, at minimum, must receive annual training on laws and the department’s use of force policy, according to a CPD general order in February. Officers also must qualify with their firearms each year. Every two years, they must receive refresher training on other weapons and chemical spray devices.
