The Public Safety section of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a follow-up report to its inquiry into the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) preparedness for mass gatherings. In February 2021, OIG reported on Chicago’s response to the events following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and found that CPD was “outflanked, under-equipped, and unprepared to respond to the scale of the protests and unrest with which they were met in the downtown area and across Chicago’s neighborhoods.”[1] In its report published today, as Chicago prepares to host the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August, OIG examines whether CPD is better prepared for mass gatherings, across various areas of concern, than it was in 2020. OIG’s follow-up inquiry found that CPD’s efforts since the 2020 protests and unrest bode for some significant improvements in the quality of its response to large-scale events, both planned and unplanned, but OIG’s findings suggest that those improvements may not be realized in practice.
“CPD’s response to the 2020 protests and unrest was marked by critical failures in mass arrest processing and use of force reporting, and shortcomings in policies and practices presented tremendous obstacles to accountability. 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,” said Deborah Witzburg, Inspector General for the City of Chicago. “CPD has demonstrated improved planning and has drafted revisions to relevant policies. It is not clear, however, that CPD is well-prepared to disseminate consistent information and comprehensive training. Even at this late date, its relevant new policies have not been finalized. In fact, CPD began training its members on draft policies while they were still posted for—and therefore had not yet integrated—community feedback.”
OIG’s 2021 report did not include specific recommendations. In this follow-up inquiry, OIG examined the steps CPD has taken to address the deficiencies in its preparedness for planned mass gatherings and response to unplanned mass gatherings.
Areas in which CPD has demonstrated improvement since the 2020 protests and unrest include:
- Specialized Mass Gathering Procedures: CPD has established protocols to orchestrate a citywide approach for managing large-scale events, using a set of comprehensive plans developed in coordination with other departments.
- Operational Testing: CPD has worked with multiple agencies to test its emergency response plans and operational capacity to carry out those plans.
- Roles and Guidance: CPD has developed proposed policies to clarify member responsibilities for mass arrest and simplify the process for use of force reporting.
OIG also found the following areas still in need of improvement to better equip CPD to respond to mass gatherings:
- Roll Calls: Despite identifying roll calls as a deficiency in its 2020 response, CPD has not improved guidance to ensure consistent messaging during roll calls for unplanned events.
- Crowd Control: CPD’s draft Coordinated Multiple Arrest policy suite draws on outmoded crowd control tactics, failing to sufficiently address the constitutional rights of lawful demonstrations; this leaves the City vulnerable and risks undercutting CPD’s legitimacy, damaging public trust in law enforcement.
“Because this report does not contain recommendations, CPD was not required to respond. Nonetheless, we provided CPD with a draft of the report and they provided a written response, which we have attached. We appreciate CPD’s thoughtful engagement,” Witzburg said.
Read the Report
Read the full report, released on May 30, 2024.
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[1] City of Chicago Office of Inspector General, “Chicago’s Response to George Floyd Protests and Unrest,” p. 8, February 18, 2021, https://igchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/OIG-Report-on-Chicagos-Response-to-George-Floyd-Protests-and-Unrest.pdf.
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