Chicagoans vote for Police District Council candidates for first time
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicagoans will be voting for mayor on Tuesday, but 66 people will also be elected for the first time to oversee police accountability in the city.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported Monday, all 22 Chicago Police districts will be represented by three people who live in those communities. The idea is to strengthen police accountability and oversight.
This campaign season, it has been almost impossible to avoid political ads, unsolicited texts from the mayoral candidates' campaigns - and also for the first time, flyers from candidates vying for the newly-formed Chicago Police District Council positions.
"I think that to redistribute power in any sense takes time and take struggle," said attorney Loren Jones. "People been fighting for this ordinance for decades. It didn't just pop up."
Jones has pushed for the newly-elected positions as a member of the Empowering Community for Public Safety Coalition.
"We do believe that it is the strongest civilian oversight structure in this in the country," Jones said, "so we hope that folks can take our lead - and even make it stronger in the future."
The councils will:
- Hold monthly meetings, bringing community concerns directly to police leadership.
- Develop and implement community policing initiatives
- Develop and expand restorative justice programs.
"Our aim is to create a system of civilian oversight in Chicago that is the most powerful in the nation, and really gives folks on the ground floor in their communities the power to influence how we do public safety and policing in the city."
Each council will also nominate people for a citywide Community Commission for Public Safety & Accountability – composed of seven people. That commission will:
- Play a role in selecting and removing the police superintendent and the chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
- Help set department policy.
- Review the budget.
"And that's huge power," Jones said, "but at the end of the day, they can create an order that changes CPD policy - which is something that we've never had before."
While this new civilian oversight system is considered a win by those community groups who have pushed for it for many years, some criminology experts are skeptical of how effective and sustainable the new model will be.
"I've seen police oversight boards over the years, and they seem to make a splash in the beginning - and then they disappear in the water," said Arthur Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminology at Loyola university Chicago
Lurigio said in order to be effective and long-lasting, the board needs to remain independent and apolitical. He admits he is skeptical.
"Given the evidence that I've seen to date with regard to how these boards operate in Chicago and other cities, I'm coming into this new era of police accountability with some skepticism," he said.
