A still image taken from a video released by the Chicago Police Department shows a confrontation between protesters and police at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. (WTTW News via CPD)
There is no evidence that a former Chicago Police Department deputy chief who the city’s watchdog determined used excessive force during an August 2020 protest was placed on the city’s do-not-hire list after they resigned while under investigation, according to documents obtained by WTTW News.
Because the deputy chief retired during the investigation, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg recommended they be placed on the city’s ineligible for rehire list, and Chicago Police Department officials agreed, according to the most recent quarterly report released by Witzburg.
But that list, obtained by WTTW News from the Department of Human Resources via a Freedom of Information Act request, does not include any former city employee who held the rank of deputy chief in the police department at any point from 2020 to 2024, according to a list obtained by WTTW News from CPD.
Witzburg declined to comment to WTTW News.
The deputy chief was not identified in the inspector general’s Oct. 15 report, in keeping with the city’s rules.
After another CPD officer “unreasonably and without a lawful purpose” struck a protester during the protest with their baton, the deputy chief “improperly grabbed the same protestor while they were on the ground and sprayed them directly in the face” with pepper spray, according to the watchdog’s report.
Representatives of the Chicago Police Department did not respond to requests for comment from WTTW News about why the deputy chief is not listed on the city’s do-not-hire list. Police brass told Witzburg they had asked the city’s Department of Human Resources to include the deputy chief on the list.
Witzburg’s report does not identify the protest at the heart of the complaint against the deputy chief. However, protesters and police officers clashed violently during a protest on Aug. 15, 2020, in the Loop.
The protest was one of many that took place in Chicago in the days and weeks after the police murder of George Floyd, and featured calls for racial justice and to defund the CPD and other law enforcement agencies.
Then-Supt. David Brown said the event turned violent when protesters moved aggressively toward officers. Seventeen officers were injured, including an officer hit in the head with a skateboard, Brown told reporters at the time.
But protest organizers said police began beating protesters after the march was stopped by a raised bridge over the Chicago River at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue.
Chicago taxpayers have paid $330,000 to resolve six lawsuits filed by people who said they were injured by police during the Aug. 15, 2020, protest, according to court records obtained by WTTW News. Those lawsuits accused police officers of striking peaceful protesters with batons and dousing them with pepper spray, also known as Oleoresin Capsicum, or OC, spray.
The inspector general’s probe initially examined a Chicago Police sergeant’s conduct during an August 2020 protest, and determined the sergeant “unreasonably and without a lawful purpose struck a protestor — who was not an assailant and who posed no apparent threat to the Sergeant or others — in the lower back with a baton.”
The sergeant was not identified in the inspector general’s Oct. 15 report, in keeping with the city’s rules.
The inspector general recommended the sergeant be disciplined for violating departmental rules “governing the circumstances in which baton strikes are a permissible use of force” as well as eight other department rules.
CPD imposed a three-day suspension on the sergeant and assigned them to additional use-of-force training, according to the watchdog’s report.
That sergeant was promoted to the rank of lieutenant after the incident, according to the watchdog’s report.
During the inspector general’s probe of the sergeant’s conduct, investigators determined the deputy chief “improperly grabbed the same protestor while they were on the ground and sprayed them directly in the face with Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) spray.”
It is unclear whether the protestor was injured during the altercation with police and required medical attention, or whether they sued the city.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
