City to Hold Hearing on Police Contract

From Newstips.org reports

The City Council’s Committee on Police and Fire is holding a hearing April 2 at 11 a.m. at City Hall on negotiations for a new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police. The Chicago Coalition for Police Accountability will present testimony along with participants in the negotiations, said Gerald Frazier of Citizens Alert.

Among the coalition’s concerns are provisions in the now-expired police contract mandating removal of civilian complaints against officers from their files, restricting the use of existing civilian complaints in investigations of new complaints, restricting the investigation of anonymous complaints and restricting the release of names of officers who are subject to investigation, said Wendy Park of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Frazier said the coalition wants “more transparency.”

Park said the ACLU is “following very closely” the implementation of last summer’s ordinance establishing the Independent Police Review Authority, and is monitoring complaints from civilians who have contacted the ACLU and been referred to the IPRA.

“The ordinance is a good step in the right direction, but we’re very concerned the FOP contract could be a significant barrier to effective police reform,” she said.

“If the new contract does undermine police accountability we would advocate that the City Council vote against it,” she said.