Page 11 - February 2016

The next superintendent
The media fails to report this and only recently reported that the starring protestor, Lamon Reccord, is a political worker for the Foxx campaign. This is something our offi- cers have known since the first protest he organized. His protests have led to chaos in the Loop and recently he videotaped a U.S. flag burning outside the Apple store on Michigan Avenue. His actions and the actions of his group should be a grave concern for the Foxx campaign and her mentor Toni Preckwinkle. The Foxx campaign should be concerned for the voting public as well as the police. Whether she is right or wrong, Foxx continues to paint the entire police profession with her political brush. Please take this into consideration on Election Day. Foxx is a prime example of why we as a profession need to vote.
ISRs
By the time this issue reaches you, the Mayor’s search committee will have submitted three names from which the Mayor will pick the new Superintendent. The Mayor can still appoint someone who is not on that list. I hope that the Mayor looks within the CPD for our next Superintendent.
The clamor is for an outsider to be named who will come in and change the culture. I would say we have had the last nine years of
GREG BELLA
outsiders and all they have done is destroy this Department. Outsiders have given us Compstat, which is just a numbers-driven system which has us in trouble with the Department of Justice and the ACLU. Compstat is a ses- sion where the commanders get berated over the crimes that have occurred in their districts and areas and produce no real solution. The last nine years of outside leadership have resulted in the current state of affairs we all have to deal with, while the people who have led us to this place are now gone.
The Investigative Stop Report (ISR) is mandated by Illi- nois State Law Bill 1304, the Illinois Police Reform Act that took effect Jan. 1. The law mandates a report be filled out and a receipt must be given to any person you stop, except in certain circumstances. It is a simple form (about the size of a traffic ticket) that is used statewide except in Chicago. Chicago’s report was long and redundant and governed by an agreement signed by the Mayor, former Superintendent McCarthy and the ACLU.
Appoint someone who has risen through the ranks, who has worked alongside our officers and knows the mechan- ics of the CPD. Appoint someone who knows how to talk and listen to the front line troops because that is where you will get the solutions to the problems. Every day the media runs anti-police stories in print and on the airwaves and shows the segment of society that hates our officers. Every day our officers still suit up and go out and protect the peo- ple who hate us. I have been out to roll calls and, with all of this negative publicity, our officers’ chief concern is pro- tecting the good people who live in their districts. Please promote someone from within who can harness the last remnants of positive energy and right the ship. The last thing we need is another outsider who will further erode the morale and work ethic of the men and women who serve the City.
The questions I was asked are, “Who will be able to access these reports? What will they do with the informa- tion? It is unlawful to disseminate a juvenile’s information. If I stop a juvenile will the ACLU or someone through FOIA access that information? Will I be accountable for that unlawful access of juvenile information? When this infor- mation is monitored, will I be targeted for stopping people in a certain area, even though it is a high crime area? If I stop a known drug dealer and document that they are not in possession of drugs, and then I do arrest them for pos- session of drugs later, will those prior stops be used to accuse me of wrongdoing? Who will have access to all the stop information and how will it be used? How long will this information be retained?”
State’s Attorney election
The Lodge is not endorsing any candidate in the race for State’s Attorney. With that being said, I am sure everyone has seen Kim Foxx’s political commercial. Her use of the Laquan McDonald video is appalling and it is a disgusting attempt to score cheap political points. As a candidate for Cook County State’s Attorney I thought she would have addressed the murder rate in Chicago and Cook County as a top priority, instead of focusing on anti-police rhetoric. Her credentials as a prosecutor have been questioned as well as her fundraising reporting. She is Toni Preckwinkle’s political tool and she could not be an objective or fair pros- ecutor.
The answers to all of these questions are unknown. This has led to a drop in ISR reports when compared to the old contact cards filled out during the same time period as last year. While stops went down, crime, especially murders, went up. The Interim Superintendent John Escalante has been addressing roll calls across the City and listened to the officers’ complaints and concerns with this new ISR report. As a result, Escalante and his staff met with the ACLU and
RECORDING SECRETARY’S REPORT
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