Snelling is one vote away from becoming the 64th superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, with final approval expected Wednesday.
Larry Snelling
Snelling vowed to rebuild trust between Chicagoans and the Police Department, which is struggling to reduce crime and implement court-ordered reforms designed to ensure officers no longer routinely violate the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.
Larry Snelling will become Chicago’s next police superintendent — if he’s confirmed by the Chicago City Council. The 30-year police veteran says he vows to improve community relations under his tenure.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher, told WTTW News on Thursday’s “Chicago Tonight” that he would give his administration an A-minus “at least for style,” with much more work to be done.
The size of the Chicago Police Department is essentially unchanged since Mayor Brandon Johnson took office 100 days ago. There are 12,363 employees, including 11,722 sworn officers.
If confirmed as superintendent, Larry Snelling faces a delicate balancing act — addressing the crime and violence that have plagued Chicago while also changing the way CPD trains and disciplines its officers.
Chief Larry Snelling, tapped by Mayor Brandon Johnson to lead the Chicago Police Department, served as an expert witness in more than two dozen civil and criminal cases involving police officers, according to court records reviewed by WTTW News.
Pending City Council approval, Larry Snelling faces leading the Chicago Police Department at a time when residents are demanding answers to the city’s perennial problem of violent crime. He will also have to lead the department through the transformational change demanded by a court-ordered consent decree.
“This is an extremely important day for the city,” Snelling said Monday. “For people who grew up like I did — a resident of Englewood and a student of the Chicago Public Schools — I want you to know the possibilities are limitless.”
Larry Snelling, a longtime Chicago Police Department insider with a decades-long career in law enforcement, has been tapped to lead the department as the city’s next top cop.
This weekend will mark the end of Johnson’s 30-day window to pick the next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from a list of three finalists: Angel Novalez, the head of CPD’s office of constitutional policing and reform; Larry Snelling, the chief of CPD’s counterterrorism bureau; and Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin.
