Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter and the entire senior leadership team at the Chicago Police Department must go. A system that ensures that CPD leadership positions are filled by those most qualified should accompany this change. It is abundantly clear that Brown and his appointed leadership team have lost the support of the rank and file as more than 1,100 officers have left CPD over at least a year. Hundreds of positions have not been filled. Sadly, serving as a Chicago police officer is no longer the coveted job it once was.
Consider just a few of the reasons it is time for new leadership at CPD:
* Since Brown assumed office two years ago, there have been 1,571 homicides and 8,333 people shot in Chicago.
* Brown abandoned interim Superintendent Charlie Beck’s strategy of prioritizing beat integrity and assigning police resources to the districts. As superintendent, Brown has left neighborhoods across the city exposed.
* Brown has routinely failed to support his officers’ mental well-being and has punished officers (and their families) by canceling previously scheduled days off and forcing officers to regularly work 12-hour days.
* As reported by then-Inspector General Joe Ferguson, Brown failed to adequately prepare for and respond to riots and looting throughout the city in May 2020 and again in August 2020. This failure transpired in spite of intelligence signaling what to expect in terms of possible damages.
* Brown failed to institute organizational strategy in irresponsibly disbanding the Bureau of Organized Crime (gang/narcotics) and area saturation, gun and tactical teams. He realized those teams’ importance and restored them only after historic violence ensued.
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* Brown has diverted valuable policing time with his “positive community interactions” initiative, which has been rightly criticized by the consent decree monitor and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. This misplaced focus has contributed to a decline in arrests since 2019. For example, the 11th District was celebrated for being in the top three for positive interactions, even though it saw 108 homicides last year alone.
One cannot discount the demoralizing effect the promotion of unqualified officers has on colleagues in the field. Consider the questionable promotion of Yolanda Talley to internal affairs chief and then the preferential treatment afforded her vehicle when it was used allegedly to transport narcotics. And Jason Brown, who as a police commander ordered officers to personally guard his house during the summer protests, is being sued for allegedly punishing officers who acted as whistleblowers. Unacceptable.
I have previously articulated solutions and strategies for restoring and strengthening CPD. Chief among them: returning officers to local beats, restoring morale in CPD by publicly supporting officers and offering a less abusive work schedule and environment, filling detective vacancies, inviting back retired officers with investigatory experience to assist in solving violent crime cases and establishing a city-operated witness and victims protection program. I also have advocated for passing a nuisance ordinance that would hold financially accountable those who disrupt peaceful protests by looting, rioting, damaging property, engaging in flash mobs or inciting civil unrest.
Also, the city should have uniformed officers present at CTA stations to ensure safety, create a case review unit to look at prosecutors and judges’ decisions in weapons, violent crime and conspiracy cases so as to ensure full transparency and accountability, and stem the violence by closing the pipeline of future and recidivist offenders through high school work-study and reentry programs.
Enacting these measures will provide CPD with the resources and vision needed to keep residents and businesses safe. However, no more important measure can be taken immediately than selecting the right leaders for CPD who will institute a system in which promotions are determined by performance — not by politics.
The city should promote a superintendent from within the department and put an end to CPD’s infamous “friends and family” culture, which promotes individuals to the exempt ranks based on who they know. Senior leadership positions and exempt ranks should be filled only by officers from the field who have the time in grade, experience and training to justify their promotion.
Paul Vallas was budget director for the city of Chicago and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
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