Firing of official who oversaw Chicago Police reforms means officers won't get required training, sources say
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One day after Robert Boik was fired from his job as director of reform for the Chicago Police Department, sources are telling CBS 2 the move means many officers won't get their required training.
As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported Wednesday, thousands of officers could be affected.
Boik, the executive director of the Office of Constitutional Policing & Reform, was fired one day after writing a critical email to police Supt. David Brown. Dozens of police officers who were in his unit will now be relocated to patrol.
We are trying to determine how the 11,600 Chicago Police officers will get their required amount of training this year. Police sources say they won't get it – but Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a different prediction.
"What I can tell you is that the work and the reform – and particularly the emphasis on training – is going to continue going forward," Mayor Lightfoot said Wednesday. "The work that needs to be done to continue on the path of reform is larger and bigger than one individual person."
Boik was the person in charge of overseeing court-mandated reforms inside the Chicago Police Department. A 2019 consent decree requires – among other things – that 95 percent of CPD officers engage in 40 hours of training a year.
After sending a letter to Supt. Brown questioning Brown's decision to move 46 officers from the Office of Constitutional Policing & Reform and send them back to patrol, Boik was terminated.
Police sources close to the issue say the decision means police officers will not meet their required training this year. That includes:
• Use-of-force training;
• Active bystandership in law enforcement training, which deals with how to react if a fellow officer is doing something they should not;
• Crisis intervention training, such as how to deal with an active shooter;
• Gender-based violence training, which includes how to respond to calls on domestic violence.
The mayor on Wednesday justified shifting officers to other areas.
"Every single bureau within this department has been asked to give some additional resources for the officers who are doing non-police work to contribute to the crime fight; to help with security on the CTA," Mayor Lightfoot said. "Every single bureau has said yes."
With those officers no longer working on training, sources said civilians will be hired to replace them. But those same sources say no one has been hired yet – let alone trained for the job.
We asked the Mayor's office for clarification, and they told us they had no further comment.