22 hours Ago By The Editorial Board
Much of the public discussion in recent years around holding Chicago cops accountable has centered on civilian agencies that probe alleged police misconduct. At least as important if not more so is how the Chicago Police Department supervises its own, and that factor hasn’t gotten the same level of attention. Until now.
The news there, we’re happy to say, is good. The Tribune reported that CPD supervisors’ formal citations of officers in their charge nearly doubled in 2024 from the year before. Summary Punishment Action Requests, or SPARs in cop lingo, numbered 5,380 last year compared with 2,709 in 2023.
SPARs aren’t used for the most serious cases of questionable police behavior, those involving use of deadly force, for example. They’re the primary tool for instilling day-to-day discipline in the ranks, addressing problems like officers failing to activate body-worn cameras or neglecting to appear in court to testify in cases in which they’re witnesses. We don’t think readers should conclude from this statistical surge in 2024 that Chicago police performance is slipping.
Rather, it’s evidence to us that CPD leadership, starting with Superintendent Larry Snelling, is strengthening internal management. In other words, the increase in recorded officer infractions looks to us like a positive development, strange as that may sound. While civilian oversight in the most high-profile cases of alleged police misconduct is important for instilling more public confidence in the department, the ideal source of discipline is department leaders themselves.
Snelling views internal oversight as a way to not only ensure good conduct, but also as a way to better develop officers. “We have to find out what our officers need and we have to make sure that we’re providing that to them,” Snelling told the Tribune. The aforementioned body-worn cameras, for example, are critical tools for adjudicating those serious cases.
If officers don’t activate the cameras, investigators have to rely on witnesses or, in the worst cases, officers’ word against those alleging police brutality and the like. The Tribune reported that 281 SPARs last year related to body-camera activation, with 36 officers suspended in those cases. In 2023, there were no — zero — SPARs for camera-activation failures.
Look no further than Springfield, where the Sangamon County Board recently approved a $10 million settlement in the shooting death last July of Sonya Massey in her own home by a sheriff’s deputy. That deputy didn’t have his bodycam activated, but his partner did. Without that footage, the truth of what happened to Massey might well never have come out.
Failure to appear in court to testify accounted for more than a quarter of the internal citations, by far the largest category. The number of SPARs relating to missed court dates more than tripled in 2024 compared with 2023. Beyond reasonable explanations such as family emergencies, “we cannot just accept excuses for officers not going to court,” Snelling told the Tribune.
When officers don’t show up, most of the time without warning, a court system already overwhelmed by the number of cases just gets more clogged. Defendants who are incarcerated awaiting trial have to spend even more time behind bars without having their day in court. A well-functioning Chicago Police Department is critical to getting this city back on its feet again.
Outside critiques of the department, particularly those offered constructively, are a necessary part of improving policing in Chicago. But there’s no substitute for accountability from within. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.
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