Chicago's top watchdog raises alarms about police tactics for protests during Democratic convention
Inspector General Deborah Witzburg warned that using pepper spray and corralling protesters ‘risks escalating tensions and violating constitutional rights of lawful demonstrators.’
After a peaceful protest through Hyde Park, demonstrators and police officers square off on May 31, 2020, at Lake Park and 53rd Street.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
The city’s top watchdog raised alarms Thursday about the Chicago Police Department’s planning ahead of the Democratic National Convention, warning that using pepper spray and corralling protesters “risks escalating tensions and violating constitutional rights of lawful demonstrators.”
The report from Inspector General Deborah Witzburg’s office follows her office’s blistering analysis three years ago that the department had been “outflanked, under-equipped and unprepared to respond to the scale of the protests and unrest” that followed the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.
Witzburg’s criticism was far more tempered in the new report, but she expressed serious concerns about some of the steps CPD has taken to gear up for the convention in August.
“As Chicago prepares to host the DNC — and reckons with the prospect of large-scale demonstrations to accompany it — we must be confident that the mistakes of 2020 will not be repeated,” she said in a statement.
In a letter attached to the report, Police Supt. Larry Snelling disagreed with many of Witzburg’s harshest findings and insisted CPD “has made considerable progress with respect to its mass gatherings since the events of 2020.”
The inspector general’s report notably highlights the use of “kettling,” a controversial tactic in which police officers surround protesters from all sides.
In a new draft policy on mass arrests, CPD urges officers to refrain from “kettling” but doesn’t specify when the tactic could be allowed or mention demonstrators’ rights to peacefully gather and be protected from unlawful searches.
The police department has drawn a line between “kettling” and what CPD describes as “encirclement,” although the inspector general’s office notes that officials in New York City found the practices are effectively the same.
In August 2020, Mayor Brandon Johnson — then a Cook County commissioner — joined other elected officials to denounce an alleged “kettling” incident downtown that led to 24 arrests.
But CPD’s training materials refer to the incident as “encirclement” and describe it as “a success.”
“Despite financial costs to the city from its prior use of containment tactics and the public criticism it received, CPD does not address the potential consequences of improper containment tactics in its training,” the inspector general report states.
It similarly warns that officers aren’t properly trained on the circumstance when pepper spray can be deployed against protesters.
The report notes that police training allows the use of pepper spray on demonstrators who merely ignore demands, conflicting with guidance from law enforcement associations and other municipalities.
CPD was also criticized for training officers on the mass arrest policy while it’s still in draft form and failing to better engage the public ahead of its implementation.
But the report makes no specific recommendations for improvements related to any of the issues raised.
Snelling used his response letter to detail the level of training, planning and outreach that has gone into preparing for the Democratic convention.
He also hammered on the restrictions governing “encirclement,” which he notes “shall only be used to surround those persons who will be arrested.”
“For every person encircled, individual probable cause must have already been established prior to conducting the encirclement,” he said. “This is different from ‘kettling,’ which refers to police surrounding and detaining persons without the probable cause to do so.”
Snelling noted that CPD has also made changes on the use of pepper spray in crowds “in response to protests containing passive and active resisters,” and those changes are now part of current training.
Meanwhile, CPD’s new mass arrest policy continues to face scrutiny from a coalition of community groups that’s involved in the federal consent decree mandating sweeping departmental changes.
On March 13, the coalition warned in a court filing that that policy “eviscerates protections required by the First Amendment, the consent decree, and CPD’s existing First Amendment policy.”
Chicago Deputy Corporation Counsel Jennifer Bagby later called the coalition’s analysis “inaccurate and misleading,” and closed-door settlement talks have since been convened.
Maggie Hickey, the independent monitor overseeing compliance with the court order, urged police officials last week “to not lose focus on making deliberate progress” as the Democratic convention nears.
Hickey also wrote a scathing report on CPD’s response to the protests and unrest that rocked the city in the summer of 2020 and impacted the scope of the consent decree.
Years later, both she and Witzburg have credited CPD for taking important steps to address those operational failures, with Hickey noted there had been “lessons learned” from her report.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said law enforcement groups have been prepping for more than a year and have coordinated with 15 public safety entities — including the Chicago Police Department.
It’s part of a critical voter outreach plan in place since President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and extended into the halls of the White House — as Biden combats Donald Trump and his army of online supporters.
Many Democrats argue democracy itself is in danger this election cycle. This danger demands we fiercely defend the right to protest throughout the summer and the next four years.
The city is required to provide police escorts for all convention committee personnel who are “delivering credentials to state delegations and the media at their respective hotels.” It also must provide “special” security for “delegates and other dignitaries.”
Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley “saw this as an opportunity to show a city that does work — not a city that crumbles under the pressure of protesters,” said Leslie Fox, executive director of the 1996 convention’s host committee. “The stakes were pretty high.”
Lollapalooza is typically the busiest hotel weekend of the year for Chicago. But a Sun-Times search shows average daily hotel room rates during the Democratic National Convention may be nearly $50 higher during its four-day stint in Chicago.
Federal and local officials have repeatedly said they are ready for what could be one of the biggest events to hit Chicago in decades. It’s been described by one Chicago police official as bigger than the 2012 NATO Summit and 1996 Democratic National Convention.
“This is just a target-rich stew for the Russians to try lots of things and see what works,” says Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic International Studies.
Trump and Biden face crucial strategic decisions on how to play the conviction. They’ll meet for their first debate June 27 in Atlanta, Trump will be sentenced July 11 and the Republican National Convention kicks off July 15 in Milwaukee.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2022 spoke before state Democratic Party leaders in New Hampshire and Florida, fueling speculation that he was plotting a presidential run in 2024. Since then, he’s repeatedly tamped down questions about his presidential ambitions.
Before the Chicago convention in August, Democrats will hold a virtual roll call to nominate President Joe Biden to a second term in order to qualify for the Ohio ballot, columnist Lynn Sweet writes.
The lack of a defined, public strategy isn’t a criticism of city officials. The goal is to show that Chicago can embrace protest and the exercise of free speech rights.
With 89 days until the convention kicks off, organizers and state and local officials meet with the media and woo influencers who could connect with hard-to-reach voters.
Hay talento sin aprovechar que nuestra ciudad tiene que ofrecer, y es fundamental impulsar más recursos permanentes como los que se están construyendo para la convención.
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