Live reporting by
Parker Garlough
@ChicagosMayor is 2 weeks late on selecting 7 COPA comissioners from a list of 15 submitted by this police council, district councilor Thomas McMahon said.
CPD and the City of Chicago only comply with 5% of the Consent Decree, 5 years after it was first put in place, district council chair Robert McKay said. To his knowledge, there have not been, and will not be, consequences for this noncompliance. chicago.gov/city/en/sites/…
chicago.gov/city/en/sites/…
Increasing compliance is a top priority of the superintendent, McMahon said, but could not provide examples of action he had taken toward this goal.
"Bottom line, if I see police abusing their authority, who do I call?" asked an attendee who did not introduce themself. District councilor Ponchita Moore advised calling @ChicagoCOPA first, and said filing a complaint with @Chicago_Police is also an option.
Each councilor introduced themself, since multiple new attendees were present.
McKay is considering running for school board because school closings are an unfair disinvestment from communities and create safety issues, he said.
Moore said she decided the 5th police district council should hold meetings at rotating locations throughout the 5th district so places like Altgeld Gardens aren't left out, as an attendee said they often are.
In response to a question about whether the councilors had been arrested, Moore and McKay responded yes. McMahon did not respond.
The experience of being arrested can be traumatizing, Moore said, and her own experiences with police officers have been a large part of her motivation for being part of the police district council.
Brianna Payton, from the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice, and Megan Merrill, Systems Advocacy Coordinator for the Network Advocating Against Domestic Violence, have begun presenting on the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act, which ended money bond.
Prior to the Pretrial Fairness Act, bond decisions were made in minutes or seconds, Payton said. Now, that time is closer to 20-30 min and involves more careful consideration.
"Money bonds don't do what they claim to do," Payton said. Only 20% of bond money was returned, and money bonds did not make people more likely to come to court—things like reminders were more impactful.
"It only takes incarceration for a few hours to be at risk of losing your job," Payton said. This can have an adverse chain reaction, such as the possibility of losing housing or custody of children.
"Within the jail, they're exposed to all other types of harms," she elaborated, such as being denied life-saving medicine, being bitten by rodents, and having an increased suicide risk—higher than that of prison.
"Most people who commit suicide in jail do it within the first week," Payton said. "That's a main reason why we felt the need to fight against pretrial detention, because they're subjected to conditions nobody should be subjected to."
"Detention hearings are much more involved [than bond hearings]," Payton said. There are arguments and witnesses on both sides.
Conditions for detention: probable cause that a crime was committed, clear and present danger to the community, high risk of willful flight
A major improvement of the Illinois Pretrial Fairness Act is that domestic violence survivors are advised of every court date (bond hearings were previously excepted), and are thoroughly informed of their rights, Merrill said.
"One thing we do not apologize for is that this is meant to decrease pretrial incarceration," which can increase the risk of committing future crimes, Payton said.
In locations where money bond has been ended, Payton said, it has not resulted in a rise in violence.
"When people are not incarcerated pretrial," Merrill said, "it is far easier for them to participate in their own defense."
Payton noticed that these numbers will likely fluctuate because the Pretrial Fairness Act was implemented very recently.
"They [judges] view setting bonds as a way to detain people without actually going through the legal process to detail people before trial," Payton said.
"The legal system is not known for owning its own criminality and its own wrongdoing," Payton said, in reference to people who are found not guilty but received no restitution for the harm they experienced as a result of pretrial detention.
McMahon said he believes the increased thoroughness of detention hearings is much more beneficial and fair.
The meeting is adjourned. The next police district council meeting will take place on Thursday, May 16th at 6 pm at Altgeld Gardens Public Library.
During the meeting, an attendee asked a question referencing McMahon's former employment as a police officer. He seemed defensive (it was not the first time this comment was made) and stated that he hadn't been an officer for 14 years. They are now discussing this comment.