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WASHINGTON. — The US Department of Justice will investigate the Chicago Police Department following protests over the city’s handling of last year’s killing of a black teenager shot by a white police officer, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said yesterday.
US authorities will look at the department’s use of force, including deadly force, among other issues, she said at a news briefing to announce the civil probe.
“Our goal in this investigation . . . is not to focus on individuals but to improve systems,” Lynch said.
She said federal officials would be investigating “constitutional violations” in one of the nation’s largest police departments.
“What we are looking is to see whether or not the police department as a systemic matter has engaged in constitutional violations of policing,” the nation’s top law enforcement official said.
The announcement comes after almost two weeks of protests in Chicago following the release of a 2014 police squad car dashboard video showing police officer Jason Van Dyke emptying his gun into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, shooting him 16 times. Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had initially disagreed with calls for a federal civil rights investigation, said on Monday that he welcomed Lynch’s announcement and pledged the city’s “complete cooperation.”
Emanuel ousted his hand-picked police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, last week. He also announced on Sunday that he had replaced the head of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, which reviews police misconduct allegations.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez plans to announce the results of an investigation of another 2014 fatal police shooting on Monday morning. WGN-TV said there would be no charges in the shooting of Ronald Johnson, III, citing an unnamed prosecutor’s source.
The video of that shooting will be released yesterday, according to the local ABC affiliate, citing Johnson’s family.
High-profile killings of black men at the hands of mainly white police officers in US cities have prompted a national debate about the use of excessive force by police. — Reuters.
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