Chicago Inspector General asks state regulators to ban some CPD officers from law enforcement

CHICAGO (WLS) — For the first time, Chicago’s Inspector General is asking state regulators to ban a number of Chicago police officers from serving in law enforcement.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than a dozen CPD officers have been tagged as members of radical, sometimes violent groups, even as they deny it and remain on the job.

Some of those officers, and others with seriously flawed work histories, may be among the names targeted for state de-certification after a history-making move by the Chicago Inspector General.

“In order to serve as a police officer in any department in Illinois, a person must be certified as eligible to do so by the state of Illinois,” said Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.

Witzburg is recommending that the state de-certify a number of CPD officers and has sent the names and alleged misdeeds of those officers to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board headquartered in Springfield.

According to the agency, a new law allows inspectors general to ask that officers be defrocked for verified excessive force, tampering with official body or dash cam footage, evidence tampering and lying, and any other unprofessional or unethical conduct harmful to the public.

As the I-Team first reported nearly two years ago, at least a dozen CPD officers had been linked to the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other anti-government, sometimes racist, extremist groups, but allowed to stay on the job.

Witzburg declined to discuss which officers are being recommended for state decertification or for what reasons, but pointed to honesty as an important criterion.

“We have highlighted situations in which CPD members have been allowed to keep their jobs in the department despite having been found to violate the police department’s rule against false reports. Lying is specifically a category which is eligible for discretionary decertification. We take those cases very seriously. People who lie in reports should not continue to serve as police officers,” she said.

Last spring the inspector general asked that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the police department take more robust action against officers who had broken the rules.

Witzburg won’t say whether they could have headed off state involvement in a city matter. One upside to decertification by Illinois officials: the action extends across Illinois, and prevents bad officers from losing their job in one city only to end up in another.