Mayoral candidate Gery Chico would immediately fire Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson as part of his public safety plan, unveiled Thursday.
Chico says the search for a new chief will begin as soon as he’s declared the winner.
“The trust between police and communities has broken down, and we need someone who is going to lead us, who has the full faith of the city to do the right thing when there are any allegations of police misconduct,” Chico said. “There are too many questions swirling around Johnson and how he’s dealt with misconduct to date.”
Chico said he’s spoken to members of the police department — but not Johnson — and the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents over 8,000 officers in the department, and those conversations helped form the viewpoints laid out in his public safety plan.
Chico is the latest candidate to say he’d fire Johnson. Earlier this month, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle also said she’d dump Johnson because he “refused to acknowledge that there was a code of silence in the Police Department … I don’t think that’s an honest statement.”
Chico said his plan to make the city, and Chicagoans, safer is a “holistic approach” that includes bolstering the CAPs program, requiring officers to undergo 75 hours of annual training on topics like as de-escalation techniques and mental health and ensuring the gang database follows professionally accepted standards and is regularly audited to curb racial discrimination.
Chico also calls for adding 300 detectives, creating a team of 1,200, to improve the city’s homicide clearance rate. Last year, police cleared roughly 17.5 percent of homicides.
To stem the flow of illegal guns into the city, Chico would create the Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention and Reduction, led by a director of public safety. That office would include a new deputy superintendent tasked with creating and coordinating “a gun violence strategy with state and federal prosecutors to curb gun violence and tackle the flow of illegal guns on our streets.”
Chico also would spend $50 million in city funds on “empowerment programs,” like Heartland Alliance’s READI Chicago and Chicago CRED, and look at using money from the Justice Department and the state to invest another $100 million in other community-based programs, community mental health services and expand the One Summer Chicago program to connect kids to work experience opportunities.
“We’re not going to be able to bring public safety to the level we want by just policing our way out of problem,” Chico said. “We have to change our approach. We have to save lives by changing lives. This is not simply a police problem … I’m going to lead with a lot of different people … we’re not going to work in silos anymore.”
