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In July, the Illinois Attorney General, along with Chicago’s mayor and the Chicago Police Superintendent, released a draft consent decree, seeking sustainable reform of the Chicago Police Department’s policies and procedures. The decree and other resources concerning the drive to reform the Chicago Police Department through public oversight and a consent decree are available at a website maintained by the office of the Attorney General

The Attorney General’s office engaged in a year-long process to draft the decree, holding 14 community roundtables and 13 focus groups with police officers of disparate rank. The consent decree stems from Department of Justice findings that there is a pattern of civil rights violations, including the unconstitutional use of deadly and excessive force by officers, caused by systemic deficiencies within CPD. Deficiencies include lack of supervision, inadequate training, failure to investigate or discipline misconduct and insufficient structures to support officers in need of counseling or assistance.

The draft decree is over 200 pages long and incorporates many reforms suggested by both the DOJ and the Police Accountability Task Force. The public comment period on the draft decree runs 21 days and then the draft will be updated, finalized and presented to a federal judge for signature. Once signed, the decree becomes enforceable by the courts with an independent monitor empowered to track and oversee reforms.

The Chicago Council of Lawyers submitted comments on the proposed decree, which are available here.

What is a Consent Decree?

A consent decree is an agreement between the parties of a lawsuit to end the lawsuit, in exchange for changes  in the parties’ behavior. A consent decree is acceptable by the judge, who keeps the authority to monitor how well the agreement is working and to make sure each side is keeping their promises.  Although the court enters and enforces the consent decree, it is negotiated by the parties themselves without direction of the court.

Like an ordinary order entered by a judge, a consent decree will include a statement of what each party’s rights in the situation are and it will include a statement of what everyone agrees are the facts. This is important because the facts and rights, as agreed to in the consent decree, become the official story if there is any need to sue over the consent decree.

Consent decrees are common in civil rights cases against police departments with 23 police departments agreeing to them in the last 23 years. In 1994, a new law allowed the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department  to sue police departments that showed a “pattern and practice” of using excessive force and/or violating people’s civil rights .