Chicago’s top cop pledges to address rise in officers pointing their guns at people

The Chicago Police Department continues to make slow progress towards reforming its training, policies, and practices, but there are two distinct areas where it is lagging behind court-ordered reforms.

The team charged with overseeing the 2019 federal consent decree – ordered in response to the police killing of Laquan McDonald – held a status hearing on Tuesday.

They expressed concern about the rising number of use-of-force incidents involving CPD personnel since 2022. The team also pointed out that CPD’s crisis intervention program is understaffed, making it difficult for Chicago police districts to respond to calls involving individuals experiencing mental health emergencies.

The independent monitors' latest numbers show that CPD is in partial compliance with 94% of the areas of the federal consent decree and in full compliance with 23%, up from the 16% reported earlier this year.

At the hearing, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling told U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer that his department has made significant strides over the years, but acknowledged that it still has a long way to go to reach full compliance.

“I wish we could snap our fingers and just turn the department around 100%,” he said. “But we all know it doesn't work that way. Change is slow, especially if it's going to be effective.”

Assistant Attorney General Michael Tresnowski applauded CPD’s implementation of an annual use-of-force training for all its staff, which covers topics including de-escalation to reduce the need of force.

But Tresnowski also questioned if these trainings have resulted in meaningful change. He pointed to CPD data showing that use of force incidents among CPD personnel jumped from 1,923 in 2022 to 3,139 in 2024.

Snelling conceded that there has been an increase in cases of officers pointing their firearms at individuals, and told Judge Pallmeyer he is working with his police district commanders to resolve the issue.

Assistant Attorney General Mary Grieb commended CPD for adding three data analysts to the Crisis Intervention Unit to help the city make evidence-based plans to expand that program. But Grieb said it remains severely understaffed and needs more resources to reach compliance with the consent decree.

Snelling told the judge his department would work on solving the issue.

The independent monitoring team will hold its next public hearing on CPD’s consent decree compliance on Dec. 9.