Saturday, May 14, 2016

Chicago mayor to replace police review board with more independent watchdog

Today, the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, decided that the city's Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) was no longer trustworthy, having former police officers and contradict their own findings in investigations into police violence. The mayor, under the advisement of a task force, decided to form a new independent watchdog to get minority groups to trust the police again. This decision also came as a result of the protests against police related killings over the past two years. The mayor hopes that the new group will provide better oversight over the city's police force. The plan will be presented to the City Council on June 22nd, and will decide on whether or not to enact the plan. Do you believe that this change will help reduce and stop police related killings and brutality? Is there something else the city of Chicago can do to further mitigate this issue?

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do not think that this change will reduce police brutality in the short term because people generally do not think they are going to get caught when they commit crimes; however, I believe that in the long term police brutality will decrease because more police officers are punished. I think that the independent review agency is more likely to fire or convict police officers because they are less biased and less likely to know the officers in question. If more of these officers are removed from the force, then there will be fewer officers who commit these acts. I think the biggest step Chicago can take is to make their officers accountable for their actions so the ones who should not be police officers are fired or prosecuted for their actions.

May 15, 2016 at 1:14 PM
Anonymous said...

I think that this decision is a step in the right direction, and hopefully might have an effect on the actions of police, but I do not think this is enough to drastically change anything. I think the process to correct this issue is just something that will take time, no matter what the city decides to do since the current mistrust of the police force is so strong in certain areas.

May 15, 2016 at 1:51 PM
Unknown said...

I believe this plan has the potential to improve the current state of their police force. Although under the given circumstances, with an increasing rate of police brutality over the past couple of years, it is going to take a lot of hard work and time before we begin to see defining results. This might also have no effect on the reducing police brutality. Being that this is a more serious matter, a more extreme rot might have to be taken in order to see any improvements.

May 15, 2016 at 4:30 PM
Cami Nemschoff said...

Similarly to Jack, I think that police being punished for police brutality is the main way to decrease it. By getting rid of some of the current officers, they are in fact punishing them, so this is a step in the right direction and could stand as a deterrent for further brutality. Hiring new people could help, but only if these people will significantly cut down on brutality, which is something nobody can know until they begin working. I do think that this change will help increase the trust of police, but only slightly. Police brutality has become a national issue, so changing the force in one city will not alter the overall attitude towards police significantly.

May 18, 2016 at 9:03 AM
Jessica Yeh said...

I agree with previous comments about how this could be a step in the right direction for reducing police brutality. However, another goal of abolishing the review board is to ultimately establish more trust in the police. Even if police brutality is reduced, I don't think that will be enough to fix a deep-seated mistrust of the police, especially in areas like Chicago with cycles of brutality and crime- a culture and a widespread belief is very hard to change. It will take time, but a prominent city like Chicago can set a good example for others.

May 18, 2016 at 12:38 PM
Unknown said...

I do not understand what will be super different about this police initiative, but if it is stopping police brutality I think its great. However I do agree with Jessica Yeh. It will take a while to have relations between minority groups and the police restored, and it will take much more than the review board being abolished. In the Stanford prison experiment the world was shown what the power of prison guard or even police officer can do to a person. An effort by police officers to not let their power make them become petty toward criminals is what is really necessary. In police training there should be a large focus on teaching the potential officers how to control the overwhelming feeling of superiority and power to prevent police brutality. Overall it is going to be hard to fully restore many people's trust in the police but any effort that will help is worth it.

May 18, 2016 at 7:41 PM
Anonymous said...

I do not have faith that this oversight committee alone will instigate a significant amount of change. However, I think it is a symbolic step for the city itself. By establishing an oversight committee, the mayor and the city's government are showing the people that are being heard and that they are responding to their calls for less police brutality. That being said, I think it will take a while for residents of Chicago and really the nation to start trusting the police and having faith in municipal governments once again. Like Jessica said, at least Chicago is off to a good start by setting a good example for the rest of the country.

May 19, 2016 at 6:18 PM
Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
May 20, 2016 at 12:11 PM
Unknown said...

The new committee will probably serve its purpose because it will send a message to the people that the government does actually care about the minority groups. If it does not do anything on its own, it will at least let the people know that the government is aware that police brutality is an issue and is taking action. As everyone else said, it probably will not make significant changes but I think it indubitably will make a positive difference however small it is.

May 20, 2016 at 12:13 PM

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