The 132-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago argues that an overhaul of Chicago’s 12,000-officer force in the wake of a damning civil rights report in January can’t work without the intense scrutiny of a court-appointed monitor answerable to a judge.
“Absent federal court supervision, nothing will improve,” the lawsuit says.
The civil litigation is also a signal that longtime advocates of far-reaching police reforms don’t trust President Donald Trump’s administration.
While Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has expressed skepticism about court involvement, President Barack Obama’s administration saw it as vital to successful reforms. Obama’s Justice Department typically took a city reform plan to a judge to make it legally binding in the form of a consent decree.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of seven groups and six individuals asks for a court to intervene to end what the plaintiffs describe as “abusive policies and practices undergirding the alleged constitutional and state law violations.”