Activists continue to call for his resignation, due to his mishandling of the situation in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Mayor Emanuel’s critics have charged him with being a major part of a cover-up to suppress dash cam video footage showing what actually took place at the moment Mr. McDonald was killed. Later, it was revealed that officers at the scene falsified reports and the upper echelon of the Chicago Police Department knew it, and did nothing.
At the time, Garry McCarthy was the city’s top cop, and Mayor Emanuel was criticized by the city’s residents as well as members of the force, for bringing someone in from outside to run the force. Mr. McCarthy, widely seen as Mayor Emanuel’s scapegoat in the handling of the McDonald case is reportedly a top candidate to head the London Metropolitan Police.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Police Department announced Mr. Ramsey would “help guide critical civil rights reforms” as a result of his over four decades of law enforcement experience and although some may think he is an outsider, he really isn’t said Mayor Emanuel.
“Commissioner Ramsey is not only a national leader in urban policing who has led two major police departments through civil rights reforms—he is also a native Chicagoan who knows our police department and our communities. With roots in Englewood, he has a unique understanding of the important role community relationships play in making our city safer,” said Mayor Emanuel.
In January 2015, President Barack Obama named Commissioner Ramsey the co-chair of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, brought together to identify strategies aimed at improving police community relations nationwide.
During Mr. Ramsey’s tenure as Philadelphia’s top cop, which began in January 2008 under then-Mayor Michael Nutter, there were a record number of police involved shootings there. Like most big city police chiefs, they are polarizing figures.
While there were charges of corruption and brutality on his watch, he is not without his supporters who cite good things he did, such as cutting crime dramatically through the implementation of high visibility patrol tactics and mandating that the names of officers involved in shootings be released within 72 hours of the incident. He served as chief of police in Washington D.C., from 1998 to 2007, and in the Chicago Police Department between the years 1971 and 1998, achieving the rank of deputy superintendent.
Community activist Afrika Porter believes the person who steps into the superintendent’s position in Chicago will have their hands full “because they will have to come in and fix a very corrupt system.”
She said some have recommended Mayor Emanuel seek the counsel of whistle-blower Lorenzo Davis. Mr. Davis is a former Independent Police Review Authority investigative supervisor who said he was pressured to change his findings that many police-involved shootings did not warrant the use of lethal force. His conclusions, likely unpopular with the upper echelon of the police department and some city officials, resulted in him being fired, he said. Mr. Davis has called for federal investigations into his claims related to IPRA.
As far as Mr. Ramsey’s consultant role, she is skeptical of anything Mayor Emanuel does, but is willing to see how things turn out. She said some reform minded former police officers as well as other community activists are of the opinion that he is a “go along to get along type” while others see the move as a good one, even if it is considered a strategic move by Mayor Emanuel to appear as if he is being responsive to critics who have called for his resignation.
“It will be interesting to see how things progress regarding this appointment,” she said.