Lori Lightfoot: Dean Angelo 'Misses the Mark' on Task Force Recommendations

Lori Lightfoot, chairwoman of the Police Accountability Task Force, says FOP President Dean Angelo “continues to miss the mark when he dismisses the report.” Lori Lightfoot, chairwoman of the Police Accountability Task Force, says FOP President Dean Angelo “continues to miss the mark when he dismisses the report.”

Following FOP President Dean Angelo’s appearance on Monday, “Chicago Tonight” received letters of response from Lori Lightfoot, president of the Chicago Police Board and chairwoman of the Police Accountability Task Force, and Edwin Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

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Read Lori Lightfoot's letter.Read Lori Lightfoot's letter. In her letter, Lightfoot says Angelo “continues to miss the mark when he dismisses the report.”

“He repeated his specious comments that the PATF and its report are biased. But here again, the facts tell a different story and the report contains several provisions that are intended to improve the day to day life of Chicago Police officers,” Lightfoot’s letter states.

“It is hard to fathom that Mr. Angelo maintains his reflexive, uninformed position when it is obviously belied by the facts. Does he really believe that a better trained, better prepared and more professional police force will not inure to the benefit of his members?

“I encourage all members of the Department to read the entire report and take their own measure of the findings and recommendations,” the statement continues. “The substantial numbers of current and retired officers who have reached out and thanked me and the other members of the PATF for taking on the hard truths and sacred cows, and putting together blueprint for change can't all be wrong.”

Dean Angelo: "In my 36 years, when a police officer dons that blue shirt and they go to work, they’re not biased in any way, shape or form."Dean Angelo: "In my 36 years, when a police officer dons that blue shirt and they go to work, they’re not biased in any way, shape or form."

In his letter, Yohnka says that Angelo misrepresented the work of the ACLU, including Angelo's claims about the forms that police officers must fill out when making street stops.

Read Edwin C. Yohnka's letterRead Edwin C. Yohnka's letter “Angelo also said that the City lets the ACLU ‘write the stop form’ that has been at the center of discussion regarding the drop in street stops in the City. We didn't write the form. We would have been satisfied with a shorter form, like the one in New York,” Yohnka’s letter said. "The City decided to collect information beyond the scope of our agreement, not us. Again, I think that it leaves a false impression to suggest that his complaint is with this form.

“The FOP has opposed every form. You can go back to the early 2000s when the City first began using contact cards and see the same sorts of complaints from the FOP,” the letter continues. “It is not the form; they simply do not like any kind of oversight.”


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