The selection of Chicago’s next top cop will have a singular impact on the city’s future.
History suggests he may be set up to fail.
On Thursday, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability sent three finalists for the job to Mayor Brandon Johnson: two Chicago Police Department veterans, Larry Snelling, chief of the counterterrorism bureau, and Angel Novalez, head of the office of constitutional policing, and Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin.
Snelling and Novalez bring deep CPD experience. Prior to his Madison assignment, Barnes worked at police departments in North Carolina and spent a year as the director of training and professional development in Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the body that investigates use of force incidents by CPD officers.
“We are looking for a generational leader, and we believe that we have found three,” said Anthony Driver, president of civilian oversight board the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
Johnson called them “highly qualified.”
“I want to express my gratitude to all those that applied and commend the CCPSA for its dedicated work throughout this selection process,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that Chicago’s next superintendent will inspire trust, foster collaboration, and lead with integrity.”
Even the hypercritical John Catanzara had something positive to say.
The president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 declared the commission’s effort was “100 times better” than previous superintendent searches. “It is much more fair and inclusive and I want to just say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the 17,000 members I represent in the FOP for giving our members a voice in this process and explaining to you what is important to them in the boss who’s going to lead them forward.”
Feel-good language aside, not much has been said about the candidates’ plans for moving the department into a new era. The most important needs are leadership, expertise, and a commitment to real police reform and community engagement.
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The search, however, seemed to be driven primarily by Johnson’s strong preference to hire from within. The mayor will have 30 days to select a superintendent from among the finalists, or in a highly unlikely scenario, send the commission back to square one to do a new search. This search has seen its share of controversy.
In June, 19 Chicago City Council members wrote the commission to criticize its decision to not give a formal interview to one applicant, Chicago police Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott. Driver pushed back, arguing the selection process was aboveboard. All the finalists are people of color. The commission promised an open and “community-driven” process. But candidates’ names were leaked, and some in “the community” engaged in a fierce, behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign.
As the department awaits new leadership, there is still too much of the same old, same old.
For example, the recent revelation that Chicago police officers are under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct involving migrants housed at a West Side police station. An officer may have impregnated one migrant, according to news reports. COPA is investigating, but given experience, the results may not be revealed for many months. If the allegations are true, they open one more front on the ways bad cops disgrace our city.
The recent shootings of police officers, out-of-control youth mobs and the ongoing plague of shootings, street robberies and carjackings add up to a historically heavy lift for the next police superintendent. It’s a monster of a job. The top cop must appease and work with the mayor, 50 City Council members with myriad political agendas, a combative police union, the police rank and file, a slew of activist groups and a media that will put his every move under the microscope.
As Johnson mulls his choices, we need far more transparency.
For example, there is a troubling note about Snelling. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that, while he brings impressive credentials, “he has also been suspended at least twice over his long career. A database compiled by the Invisible Institute shows a use-of-force complaint against Snelling in 1994 triggered a two-day suspension. The following year, Snelling served a five-day suspension for conduct unbecoming. Details of both incidents were not known.”
Given that, how did he make the cut?
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected].
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