Chicago Police Department slow to make reform progress since the shooting of Laquan McDonald and still in need of a cultural change, experts say
CHICAGO — The shooting of Laquan McDonald triggered a momentous police reform effort that spawned a scathing Justice Department report and an extensive consent decree and for the first time added community members directly into Chicago police oversight.
But more than seven years later, the pace of reforms remains slow, stymied by a resistant department, an antagonistic police union and leadership that has fielded criticism for checking boxes rather than pursuing meaningful reform, critics say — all while the city is still notoriously violent and still seeing police misconduct cases.
McDonald’s killer, former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, was tried and convicted and has nearly finished serving his sentence. But as the city awaits his release from prison Thursday, it reckons with a police department that while changed in some ways, is struggling with many of the same problems that contributed to the teen’s 2014 killing and the response to it.
When the video of McDonald’s death became public, residents saw how the Police Department’s official narrative vastly differed from the events that unfolded on their screens.
And despite efforts on reform, evidence of problem policing is still present. A multimillion-dollar settlement is in the works for Anjanette Young, a woman who was forced into handcuffs while undressed as police raided her home based on a bad tip. An inspector general’s investigation found “a troubling series of unfounded statements” on the raid were made by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.
The video led
