Judge Michael Mullen’s decision, which is subject to appeal, upholds the effort backed by the city’s largest police union to upend the system used for 60 years to punish officers.
Fraternal Order of Police
A Cook County judge Monday allowed proceedings before the Chicago Police Board to resume as he prepares to rule on an effort backed by the city’s largest police union to upend the system used for 60 years to punish officers.
After a spirited debate, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) — once the leading progressive voice on the Chicago City Council — was the only alderperson to change their position since the December vote.
A vote on the measure could come as soon as Jan. 31, triggering what is likely to be a fierce legal fight that will determine whether, and how, city officials can hold officers accountable for serious misconduct.
The Chicago City Council voted to reject an effort to upend the system used to punish officers for 60 years, triggering what is likely to be a fierce legal fight that will determine whether, and how, city officials can hold officers accountable for serious misconduct.
The head of Chicago’s largest police union believes his officers in his union should have the right to go to arbitration over the most serious disciplinary decisions, but reform leaders believe doing so could “set us back decades.”
If 30 members of the Chicago City Council vote Wednesday to reject the changes to the police discipline system, a judge will likely decide whether Chicago officers facing a suspension of at least a year or termination have the right to have their cases decided by an arbitrator rather than by the Chicago Police Board.
In a highly unusual move, Mayor Brandon Johnson will ask members of the Workforce Committee to reject a key part of the proposed contract extension, which would give some Chicago officers the right to have their discipline cases decided by an arbitrator rather than by the Chicago Police Board.
The deal, which must be approved by the Chicago City Council, resolves the issues left over from the contract agreement reached by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in July 2021 that ended the longest union negotiations in the city’s history.
The board on Tuesday rejected a motion brought by the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, which sought to move 22 disciplinary cases from the board to an independent arbitrator, following a summer ruling that opened the door for such a shift.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7’s political action committee made an in-kind contribution of approximately $10,000 to the campaign of Julian “Jumpin’” Perez, who used those funds to pay for the flyers.
Under a new policy announced Tuesday, Chicago Police officers will get at least one day off every week. The policy was announced approximately 24 hours after the inspector general released an analysis that determined that more than 1,000 officers were scheduled to work 11 or more consecutive days between April 1 and May 31.
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg conducted the inquiry after Supt. David Brown’s decision to repeatedly cancel officers’ scheduled days off during the historically violent summer months erupted into controversy.
The city’s 2022 spending plan increased the Chicago Police Department’s budget for counseling services by 73% to allow the city to hire an additional 11 clinical therapists — enough to assign one clinician to work full time in each of the city’s 22 police districts.
After three Chicago Police Department employees died by suicide in recent weeks, Police Superintendent David Brown is defending his decision to cancel days off during the historically violent summer months.
It is the second time in six months that alderpeople have called an emergency meeting of the City Council to publicly push back against Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The alderpeople demanded the session one day after the deadline for Chicago Police Department members to get at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.