For Immediate Release: November 1, 2024
Contact: media@colorofchange.org
Legal Scholars and Community Organizations File Amicus Briefs Opposing Chicago FOP Appeal
Chicago, IL. – Today, community organizations filed an amicus brief in court arguing that police misconduct disciplinary hearings must be open to the public. Legal scholars also filed a separate amicus brief voicing similar concerns.
According to the community brief, filed before the Appellate Court of Illinois for the First Judicial District, the FOP’s demand to hold disciplinary arbitration proceedings in secret, “…sets a radical precedent that would reverse a decade of slow and halting progress made by the City of Chicago with respect to police transparency and accountability and send police misconduct back behind closed doors where for decades it was allowed to fester.”
According to the legal scholars’ brief, “The State of Illinois has an established public policy of not only ensuring that law enforcement officers are held accountable but also ensuring that the citizens of Illinois have access to the information they need to assess how well accountability systems are working in their communities.“
“The FOP’s continued attempts to evade transparency show us that they still believe that police officers should be above the law and exempt from accountability. The innumerable scandals and instances of police misconduct in Chicago have demonstrated that the public has a right to know what happens when police break the law,” said Michael Collins, Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs at Color Of Change.
In December 2023, the city council voted to reject a proposal that would have allowed police misconduct hearings to occur behind closed doors. The FOP sued and lost in trial court. This week, community groups and scholars filed briefs opposing the FOP’s position in the Illinois Appellate Court, First District.
Among the groups signing onto the community amicus brief are The ACLU of Illinois, Black Lives Matter Chicago, NAACP-West Side Branch, and the Chicago Urban League. Among the individuals signing onto the legal scholar amicus brief are Loren V. Jones, Director of the Criminal Legal Systems Program, Impact for Equity and Sharon Fairley, a professor and graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, who has taught at the Law School since 2015.
“This marks the tenth year anniversary of the Chicago Police Department’s attempt to cover up Officer Jason Van Dyke’s horrifying murder of Laquan McDonald,” said Craig Futterman, the lead author of the community amicus brief and the University of Chicago Law Professor who was the first person to call for the public release of the video. “The stakes of this appeal could not be greater. We have learned critical lessons about the importance of transparency and accountability over the past decade. We can’t afford to return to the time when a Chicago police officer knew that he could fire 16 shots into the body of a Black teenage boy while he lay on the ground, knowing that nothing would happen to him.”
“We need a serious, transparent approach to police accountability in Chicago,” said Alexandra Block, Director of the Criminal Legal System and Policing Project at the ACLU of Illinois. “Our community partners working in coalition to implement the consent decree know that real change can be achieved only through openness and accountability. Ensuring that the public can see the discipline process at work will build trust with Chicago residents in every neighborhood and help ensure public safety in all corners of the city. Real change hinges on creating public accountability for police misconduct.”
“The FOP is attempting to set back the cause of transparency in serious police disciplinary cases by sixty years. It is critical that the appellate court not allow that to happen, ” said David Melton, Co-Chair Civil Liberties Committee of the Chicago Council of Lawyers.
“For generations the people most often harmed by police misconduct have fought for justice in the form of increased accountability and transparency. Illinois has enshrined police accountability into law setting us on a path to heal and repair. This brief calls on the Appellate Court to recognize and protect this vital public interest.” stated Loren V. Jones, Director of the Criminal Legal Systems Program, Impact for Equity.
For the community amicus brief click here. For a full list signatories to this brief click here.
For the legal scholar brief click here. For a full list signatories to this brief click here and go to Appendix A p.48.
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