Justice Department Probe Concludes Chicago Police Engage In Excessive Use Of Force

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Nova Safo / AFP / Getty Images

A Department of Justice investigation into the Chicago Police Department's use of force has concluded officers engage in a pattern of excessive use of force, attorney general Loretta Lynch announced Friday.

The department found that CPD officers' practices unnecessarily endanger themselves and result in “unnecessary and avoidable use of force,” Lynch said at a press conference Friday. “The pattern or practice results from systemic deficiencies in training and accountability, including the failure to train officers in de-escalation and the failure to conduct meaningful investigation of uses of force.”

The Justice Department's investigation began in December 2015 — one month after police released a high-profile dashcam video showing the fatal shooting of Chicago teen Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times by a police officer.

The dashcam video contradicted statements police officers gave about the shooting to investigators at the time.

In the course of the investigation, the department interviewed city leaders, current and former police officers, and community members, participated in more than 60 ride-alongs, and reviewed thousands of pages of police documents, Lynch said.

Lynch said the Justice Department concluded that the unconstitutional force can be attributed to how the police department investigates use of force, and how it trains officers.

“The failures we identified in our findings — that we heard about from residents and officers alike — have deeply eroded community trust,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the civil rights division, said in a statement. “But today is a moment of opportunity, where we begin to move from identifying problems to developing solutions.”

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