Politics
Reform Groups Say CPD’s Increasing Use of Force Against Black, Latino Chicagoans Violates Consent Decree
The significant increase in the number of times Chicago police officers have used force against Black and Latino Chicagoans since 2021 violates the federal court order known as the consent decree, a coalition of reform groups told the federal judge overseeing efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department.
The coalition of police reform groups that forced the city to agree to federal court oversight told U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer in a court filing made public Tuesday that they plan to formally ask her to order CPD to swiftly stop officers from shooting, tasing, striking and using chokeholds against Chicagoans.
The consent decree requires CPD to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights and overhaul the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
“CPD has failed to rein in its culture of brutality and abuse,” the coalition said in its court filing.
The coalition asked the independent monitoring team charged with keeping track of the city’s compliance with the consent decree to convene a meeting with the city, police brass and the Office of the Attorney General within 45 days to discuss the coalition’s concerns.
“The department is moving in the wrong direction,” the coalition said.
The number of times Chicago police officers used any kind of force against members of the public increased 75% between 2021 and 2024, as documented by the number of Tactical Response Reports filed by officers, according to CPD data cited by the coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
“CPD must immediately decrease the number of people harmed by police interactions on the streets of Chicago every day,” according to the court filing from the coalition.
More than 72% of those who were subjected to force by a CPD officer since the consent decree took effect in 2019 were Black, according to the coalition’s court filing, citing CPD data. Black Chicagoans make up less than 30% of the city’s population, according to the 2020 census.
Before 2019, 93% of the people CPD officers used force against were Black or Latino. In 2024, 90% of the people CPD officers used force against were Black or Latino, according to the coalition’s filing.
CPD officers are also using force more often against children and those experiencing a mental health crisis, according to CPD data cited by the coalition in its court filing.
If the coalition determines the city, CPD and the attorney general have failed to address their concerns, the groups can ask Pallmeyer to intervene and force changes to the department’s operations under the terms of the more than six-and-a-half-year-old court order.
“Because CPD’s existing policies and training have not been effective at reducing the racial disparities in force victimization, it is time for a new approach,” according to the coalition’s court filing.
Alexandra Block, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the coalition had no choice but to initiate enforcement proceedings after raising these concerns for months without an adequate response from CPD officials, including Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
“We have been disappointed and frustrated” by Snelling’s lack of action, Block said. “These issues of police violence go to the heart of the consent decree.”
Snelling has repeatedly told Pallmeyer and reporters that he does not believe that CPD officers are actually using force against Chicagoans more often, but simply reporting those incidents accurately for the first time as compliance with the consent decree ramps up.
That is not supported by the department’s own data and documented reports of serious injuries and deaths, Block said.
CPD officers have shot 17 people, killing eight, less than nine months into 2025, more than in all of last year, records show. In 2024, CPD officers shot 12 people, killing six, records show.
The coalition asked the monitors to audit a sample of a body-worn camera footage “to determine the percentage of force incidents that CPD officers report and whether that percentage has changed over time.”
CPD officers used the highest level of force against a member of the public — including a gunshot, chokehold or a baton strike to the head or neck — 84 times in 2024, more than double the number of times officers used the highest level of force in 2023, according to CPD data cited by the coalition.
“This data strongly suggests that CPD officers are not simply getting better at filling out TRRs,” the coalition wrote, using an acronym for Tactical Response Reports. “It is highly improbable that officers fail to report firearms discharges or force incidents resulting in death. Rather, officers are using more force, and more deadly force, against community members.”
The coalition also urged CPD to change the way it documents decisions by CPD officers to point their guns at individuals and tighten the policy that determines when that is permissible, according to the filing.
The number of firearm-pointing incidents, as CPD refers to a decision by an officer to point a gun at a member of the public, increased nearly 44% between 2022 and 2024, according to CPD data.
When the consent decree took effect, city officials promised it would put an end to decades of police scandals sparked by misconduct and brutality. By the end of 2024, CPD had fully complied with just 16% of the consent decree, according to the monitors.
The monitors’ next report is due in mid-October.
“The consent decree’s current focus on written policies and training has not accomplished its intended goals: making police encounters safer, increasing CPD accountability, and decreasing discrimination and over-policing against Black and Latino people, young people and people with disabilities,” the coalition wrote in its court filing.
The coalition urged CPD to agree to “clear, enforceable, numerical benchmarks” to ensure that CPD reduces the number of times officers use force against members of the public, with specific requirements for the use of force against Black and Latino Chicagoans, children, youth and those with disabilities as part of a “binding implementation plan.”
Note: This article was published Sept. 24, 2025, and updated with video Sept. 29, 2025.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
