Politics
Key City Panel Advances Push to Rid CPD of Officers With Ties to Extremist Groups
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
A key City Council panel voted 6-3 on Monday to advance a proposal designed to rid the Chicago Police Department of officers with ties to hate groups and far-right extremist organizations.
The City Council’s Workforce Development Committee advanced the measure crafted by Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward) after a lengthy debate over whether all city employees, not just CPD members, should be banned from “actively participating” in extremist and anti-government groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Alds. Marty Quinn (13th Ward), Derrick Curtis (18th Ward) and Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) voted against the measure, which is set for a final vote by the full City Council on Wednesday. Just two alderpeople can block a vote on the proposal at that meeting, according to the City Council’s rules.
Curtis, a former Chicago Housing Authority police officer and employee of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, said he would support a measure that would apply to all city employees.
“Police are just getting beat up on,” Curtis said.
There are no public allegations that city workers in any other department other than CPD have documented ties to anti-government or extremist groups.
When Martin originally introduced the measure more than a year ago, it applied to all city employees. However, in response to concerns from the Chicago Department of Law that a broad ordinance would be unlikely to withstand a legal challenge, Martin agreed to narrow the scope.
Assistant Corporation Counsel Justin Michael Edge told the committee that approving the current proposed ordinance will “lower the risk drastically of employment lawsuits.”
The measure was narrowly crafted and sets a “high bar” for proof that a CPD officer engaged in extremist activities in an attempt to protect officers’ constitutional rights of speech and assembly, Martin said.
CPD Deputy Chief Traci Walker, the head of the Bureau of Internal Affairs, told the committee that the department was “neutral” on the proposed ordinance.
However, a spokesperson for CPD said in a statement to WTTW News after the meeting that the department “is supportive of this measure and believes every city employee should be held to the same standards outlined in this proposed ordinance.”
The measure would give the Civilian Office of Police Accountability the authority to probe officers accused of “actively participating” in extremist and anti-government groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.
Before President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the FBI labeled the Proud Boys as an antisemitic white supremacy organization and considered the Oath Keepers a “large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some who are associated with militias” who have vowed to “not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders.”
Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. Leaders of both groups were convicted of seditious conspiracy before being pardoned by Trump.
The measure specifically prohibits CPD members from participating in groups that advocate the overthrow of any level of U.S. government by violence.
The measure defines active participation in an extremist organization as paying dues, attending meetings, recruiting others or posting and sharing content online that promotes extremist activities.
The proposal also prohibits officers from engaging in the “planning, execution, or other material support of hate crimes and hate incidents.”
Officers would also be prohibited from “knowingly displaying paraphernalia, words, or symbols in support of extremist activities,” according to the proposal.
Martin said Chicago must act to fill the vacuum left by Trump, who pardoned more than 1,500 people who were convicted of attacking the Capitol as part of an effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The City Council voted 44-3 in April 2025 to ban those who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol from working in city jobs. Martin championed that effort as well.
Sposato, one of the City Council’s most conservative members who voted against the measure to ban those who participated in the insurrection, again said the events of Jan. 6 were overblown.
“We don’t mention a damn thing about the Black Lives Matter” protests, Sposato said, adding that those who protested against Trump’s mass deportation effort and Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and burned American flags should also be prevented from working for any city department.
That brought a pointed response from Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th Ward), who recounted his personal experience with racist behavior from CPD officers.
“This is a wild conversation,” Yancy said, noting that while some might object to pro-Palestinian slogans, “they are not anti-American.”
John Catanzara, president of the city’s largest police union and an outspoken supporter of Trump, shook his head vigorously when supporters of the ordinance spoke and spoke without being recognized by the chair of the meeting.
After the vote, Catanzara shouted and used profanity at the members of the committee as he left the hearing room.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
