Chicago mayor says new police chief will restore trust in the embattled department

Chicago’s mayor formally introduced a veteran city cop as the new interim police superintendent Monday, saying he will “restore trust and restore pride” in the embattled department.

“He has the command, the character and the capability to lead the department at this juncture,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters at a news conference at police headquarters.

Eddie Johnson, a 27-year officer who worked his way up from beat cop to chief of patrol, said he wanted to focus his remarks around one word: “trust.”

Johnson cited the importance of trust between officers and residents, police rank and file and command staff, and among police officers themselves, who must both watch each other’s backs and ensure they’re living up to ethical standards.

“I know that trust won’t be restored overnight. It has to be earned every day” in both routine and high-pressure situations, Johnson said. As for police misconduct, Johnson said, “We have to own it and we have to end it.”

Emanuel appointed Johnson interim superintendent after rejecting the three finalists his hand-picked Police Board had sent him. A national search was conducted after the mayor fired then-Supt. Garry McCarthy in early December in the aftermath of release of video of the Laquan McDonald shooting, which led to weeks of protests against Chicago police’s use of force.

“He will have their backs when they do their job well and hold them accountable when they do not,” Emanuel said of Johnson.

Technically, the Police Board has to do another search and forward names to Emanuel. The mayor said he is encouraging Johnson to apply this time. Johnson, who said he didn’t apply last time because interim Supt. John Escalante was going for the job, indicated he will apply.

That’s a strong indicator Johnson will be among the new finalists and get the job permanently. When pressed, however, Emanuel left open the possibility of naming someone other than Johnson to the job permanently.

The news conference came hours after black and Latino aldermen took a victory lap Monday for the part they played in Emanuel’s decision to pick a minority Chicago Police Department veteran. Aldermen were careful not to throw their victory in the mayor’s face, however.

The chairmen of the Black and Latino caucuses also painted the work their groups did together to pressure Emanuel as the beginning of further collaboration as they try to take a more prominent role in shaping city policy.

“We’ve been talking about that,” said 6th Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer, the Black Caucus chairman, “and really what the gist of this is about is the Latino Caucus, the Black Caucus are continuing to work together toward transformative change in the city of Chicago. Let’s be quite honest here. The city is comprised of a majority of black and Latino members. We’re the majority. Between the two of us, our two caucuses are the majority on the City Council.”

“By working together, great things happen, and I think Eddie Johnson’s a product of that,” added 12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas, Latino Caucus chairman. “When you have African Americans and Hispanics working together and the mayor taking that advice and fleshing that out of the best candidate, how can we not support that? How can we not, jointly, in communities that are beset by problems and also by the rank and file being in low morale, how can we not join together in that decision that benefits everyone in this city?”

Cardenas looked ahead to addressing problems he said are particularly pressing in black and Latino neighborhoods.

“You talk about economic inequality, you talk about school inequality, those are real issues that are facing our communities,” he said. “And we should be sitting down and carving that out as a topic of discussion so we can move this city forward in a positive way, and being, obviously, that instrument of change. Because the mayor obviously can’t do everything on his own, and can’t possibly know everything that goes on in every corner of the city.”

The duo passed up a chance to send a message that they will be dictating terms to Emanuel on issues going forward in favor of a softer sell.

It’s “not a power play,” Sawyer said. “But just respect our communities. I think the mayor understands that and I believe that he will respect that, that we’re making sure that the type of government that we exist in, which is a strong council, weak mayor form of government, that’s the government that we exist in, we want to make sure that it happens for the benefit of the citizens of the city of Chicago.”

In practice, however, the mayor has long been a much more powerful figure in Chicago government than the 50-member City Council. And the city’s black and Latino communities historically have had a fraught political relationship, shown recently when mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, amid black voters’ distrust of Emanuel, lost to the mayor in black-majority wards in their head-to-head 2015 election despite Garcia’s attempts to build a “black-brown coalition.”

Sawyer was quick to point out Monday that Emanuel is the one who’s going to be judged based on Johnson’s performance.

“I do respect that the mayor has that position, that is the mayor’s position,” Sawyer said. “He lives or dies with his police superintendent just like we live or die with our ward superintendent, you know. It’s that similar situation. We want someone we can trust to be right there in this position, and he needs somebody that he can trust to be in that position.”

Asked whether he believed they pressured Emanuel into his choice, Sawyer demurred.

“I just thought he listened to what we had to say, and I believe he thought the qualities [we sought] made sense, and maybe he picked somebody who fit those qualities. I don’t think that we, individually, had any individual say-so in what the mayor did,” he said.

The friendly atmosphere was in evidence as the two aldermen Monday supported positions important to the other’s caucus.

Hispanic aldermen had been upset that Escalante wasn’t named as a finalist, and Cardenas said that still stings. But he said he has heard positive things about Johnson and the Latino Caucus is prepared to back him.

Cardenas also made clear, however, that he wants to see more Hispanics moving up the ranks to command positions in the Police Department, and Sawyer said he agrees that needs to happen.

The mayor’s selection of Johnson came after members of the council’s 17-member Black Caucus held a news conference Thursday to say they wanted the mayor to hire a black officer from within the department. The group stopped short of endorsing Eugene Williams, a finalist for the job who serves as chief of the department’s Bureau of Support Services — a public hint that some black aldermen preferred a different African American candidate in the department. But Sawyer on Monday said that Johnson’s selection came from the mayor, not black aldermen.

Both aldermen Monday questioned the Police Board process that produced as candidates department veteran Williams along with outsiders Cedric Alexander, of suburban Atlanta, and Anne Kirkpatrick of Spokane, Wash., all of whom the mayor eventually rejected amid a chorus of skepticism from minorities on the City Council.

“I really question how do you get somebody from Spokane, Wash., in those three finalists and not a Hispanic who potentially could have been from L.A., somebody from a place with some urban commonalities when it comes to the cities,” Cardenas said.

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