Police union brands city dump of cop videos ‘irresponsible’

The Fraternal Order of Police on Friday branded as “irresponsible” the massive dump of police shooting and excessive force videos by the soon-to-be-disbanded Independent Police Review Authority.

In an angry posting on the union’s website, FOP President Dean Angelo described a stormy meeting with the city on the day before the release.

During the meeting, Angelo urged the Chicago Police Department, City Hall and IPRA to “consider our advice and add audio as well as an explanation of what the video shows.”

“The Lodge addressed our displeasure at being given less than a 24-hour notice that something this important to our members was going to be done with such minimal notice and input. To say this meeting turned contentious would be an understatement,” Angelo wrote.

“We sternly addressed our concerns about our members’ privacy, the length of the IPRA investigations, potential of violations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the possibility of an Unfair Labor Practice. The Lodge had absolutely no input in this process. We were notified less than 24-hours of the press release . . . It is sad when, with all the talk about transparency and communication, they decide to operate in this manner.”

Angelo did not return repeated phone calls.

In mid-February, Mayor Rahm Emanuel embraced a recommendation by his handpicked Task Force on Police Accountability to release video and audio tied to police-involved shootings and serious injuries suffered in police custody “no more than 60 calendar days after” the incident occurs.

Angelo responded by denouncing as “biased” the report that portrayed the Chicago Police Department as racist. He warned that it would cause already low police morale to take yet another nosedive. He also ruled out immediate changes to a collective bargaining agreement that a mayoral task force says turns a “code of silence into official policy.”

“What do you think it’s going to do to morale? We’re fielding calls already. People are concerned, upset. Different ethnicities. Different genders,” Angelo said.

“They’re saying, `Where is this coming from? Who did they talk to? How did they come to this conclusion?’ They were biased going in. That’s obvious from the report.”

Emanuel was on a two-day trip to Washington D.C. when the mountain of police videos and audio were released. The sheer volume of information makes it difficult for the news media and the general public to digest.

But that didn’t stop Emanuel from hailing the video dump as a “bold” step toward restoring public trust shattered by the city’s handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video.

“In February, I pledged to adopt a new transparency policy recommended by the Police Accountability Task Force to change the decades-old city practice of waiting to release videos and other evidence from police-involved incidents until the associated investigations concluded. With the formal implementation of the new policy, we are acting boldly and thoughtfully,” Emanuel was quoted as saying in an emailed statement.

“The policy we are implementing today is a major step forward to promote transparency, and it makes us one of the leading cities in America to guarantee timely public access to this breadth of information involving sensitive police incidents.”

Emanuel said he’s well aware that there is “a lot more work to do” and that the new policy for releasing police videos is just “one piece of a much larger effort to restore trust and repair relationships between law enforcement and our communities.”

“In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to take action on our road to reform. I am confident that Chicago will be better off because we are facing up to these difficult challenges and we are doing so together,” he said.

The mayor also had a message for police officers who may have gone from pro-active to re-active for fear of being caught on the next YouTube video to go viral.

“It is important to remember the thousands of hard-working men and women who quietly do dangerous and difficult work to keep us safe each and every day,” Emanuel said.

Emanuel has been under fire for keeping the Laquan McDonald shooting video under wraps for more than a year and waiting until one week after the April 7 mayoral runoff to authorize a $5 million settlement to the McDonald family even before a lawsuit had been filed.

The video was released on the same day that white Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with the first-degree murder of the black teenager, only after a judge ordered the city to do so.

In December, Emanuel apologized for the “systematic breakdown” that culminated in the “totally avoidable” police shooting death and acknowledged the “code of silence” in the Chicago Police Department he once tried to keep out of a court record.

The mayor has emphatically denied keeping the dashcam video of the McDonald shooting under wraps to get past the election.

But he has acknowledged that he “added to the suspicion and distrust” of everyday Chicagoans by blindly following the city’s long-standing practice of withholding shooting videos to avoid compromising ongoing criminal investigations.

On the February day when he embraced the new policy to release shooting videos within 60 days, Emanuel was asked if he believes he can ever persuade Chicagoans in general, and African-Americans in particular, that he didn’t sit on the video until he was safely re-elected.

“My goal and the actions I’m taking are about rebuilding trust between the public and the Police Department. It’s not about me. It’s about establishing an important level of trust between the public and the police because that’s essential for public safety,” Emanuel said then.

The mayor emphasized that he had asked the task force to look “top-to-bottom” and that “nothing was sacrosanct.”

“This is going to be a long road because the road getting here was also very long between Abbate, Burge, Summerdale,” the mayor said, referring to other Chicago police scandals.