For Immediate Release: March 7th, 2024
Contact: media@colorofchange.org

The Coalition for Police Accountability and Transparency Pens Letter to Mayor Johnson and Corporation Counsel Richardson-Lowry on Chicago’s Litigation Battle Over Private Arbitration in Police Misconduct Cases

CHICAGO– Today, Color Of Change, Chicago Council of Lawyers, ACLU of Illinois, and fellow members of the Coalition for Police Accountability and Transparency (“CPAT”) sent a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and lead attorney for the City, Mary B. Richardson-Lowry, in regard to the litigation between the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (“FOP”) and the City over the option of private arbitration in serious police misconduct cases. In tandem with this letter and ahead of tomorrow’s court proceeding in this case, Color Of Change and CPAT released the following statement: 

“We know that Black, Latine, low-income and disabled Chicagoans face increased risk and rates of police violence and misconduct. And for that reason, The City Council of Chicago rightfully rejected Arbitrator Benn’s award that would move some of the most serious cases of police misconduct away from the public’s eye and before FOP-approved arbitrators,” said Queen Adesuyi, Policy Strategist at Color Of Change. “There is a nationwide effort by police unions to subvert transparency in serious disciplinary cases, and the FOP Chicago Lodge No. 7 is leading that charge locally. The FOP’s legal challenge against the City is a last ditch effort to protect dangerous officers at the expense of public safety, and should immediately be vacated by the court.” 

“Arbitrator Benn committed a fundamental legal error in disregarding the public interest in Chicago police transparency and accountability and the welfare of the people of Chicago,” said Craig Futterman, a Clinical Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. “His refusal to engage the profound interests at stake is arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to established law and public policy. It is also contrary to the federal civil rights consent decree governing the Chicago Police Department. If his award to the FOP is allowed to take effect, we will return to a state of police impunity and secrecy in Chicago.” 

“It is time that transparency and the public interests get the recognition that they deserve,” said David Melton, Co-Chair of the Civil Liberties and Police Accountability Committee for the Chicago Council of Lawyers. 

Signatories of the letter include: ACLU of Illinois, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts, Chicago Council of Lawyers, Chicago Torture Justice Center, Color Of Change, Common Cause Illinois, Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid, Clinic of the University of Chicago Law School, The Exoneration Project, Impact for Equity, Julia Kline (Police District Councilor, 2nd District), League of Women Voters of Chicago, Loevy + Loevy, NAACP Chicago Westside Branch, Network 49, ONE Northside, The People’s Lobby, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL).

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