Chicago Police Department Consent Decree: A Closer Look
By Jim Talamonti
(The Center Square) – The Trump administration has scaled back federal oversight of police departments, but Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul remains a strong supporter of the consent decree in Chicago.
The U.S. Department of Justice began the process of dismissing lawsuits against police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis last month and announced it would close investigations into six other cities.
Retired Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said ending the decrees was a good move.
“There is no consent in consent decrees. They are what I would consider to be legal extortion, and I say that because when the Department of Justice says that your agency is going to fall under a consent decree and you are going to agree to it, if you do not agree to it, they sue you in court to bring you into compliance,” Weitzel told The Center Square. “The other mechanism they have that scares municipalities and cities is they will stop all federal funding to you.”
Chicago’s consent decree with the state of Illinois was approved in 2019 and remains in place.
The DOJ’s moves last month have “no direct impact” on the Chicago decree, an ACLU of Illinois spokesperson told The Center Square.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has long supported the federal consent decree for the Chicago Police Department.
Last November, Raoul filed an amicus brief calling for the continuation of public access to hearings in serious disciplinary matters involving Chicago Police Department officers. Raoul’s brief, filed in the Illinois Appellate Court, argued that moving hearings behind closed doors would undermine both the state’s consent decree with the city and public confidence in CPD.
In a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Raoul urged Johnson to reconsider proposed budget cuts involving the police department’s implementation of consent decree reforms.
“Now is not the time to undermine the progress the Department is making through unwise budget cuts,” Raoul wrote.
Chicago’s Citizen Office of Police Accountability did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weitzel said consent decrees are costly to taxpayers in Illinois and around the country.
“That’s millions, let’s be clear, millions of dollars on these offices to have to manage the consent decree. Think about that in a smaller, suburban municipality. They literally cannot afford that,” Weitzel said.
The retired chief said politicians and residents can encourage consent decrees by filing complaints.
“Those are usually politically-motivated letters that a politician has to further their own personal agenda. It’s not to improve policing or the police department,” Weitzel said.
Weitzel insisted that he is not against reform.
“Are there some agencies that needed to have policies and procedures reviewed? There are,” Weitzel said. “The consent decree is not the mechanism that should be used. It takes away all policing from the local community and the chief just becomes a figurehead.”
Along with the state’s attorney general, the ACLU of Illinois remains a staunch advocate of the consent decree in Chicago.
“Many police agencies – especially in Chicago – are broken and need sustained, focused attention with court oversight to be reformed. The ACLU of Illinois is committed to this process, and to seeing reforms through,” the organization stated on its official website.
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