CPD officers will soon have to report every time they point a gun at a person
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Officials are working on implementing a new rule that will require Chicago police officers to report every time they point a gun at a person.
Under the new policy, which is part of a consent decree meant to bring reforms to the Chicago Police Department, officers will have to radio the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications to report any gun-pointing incidents, according to a statement from CPD spokesman Luis R. Agostini.
Officers will be required to provide their radio identification or beat number, but not their individual badge number, police said.
No written documentation will be required, and officers will not have to report cases where they unholster their guns, display them or hold them in a “low ready” position, according to Agostini.
The rule was initially scheduled to take effect on Monday, but it has been delayed “to ensure alignment and proper implementation” with the consent decree, Agostini said. A new effective date will be announced in the “near future” and the policy could be implemented within the next 30 days.
”While we take the appropriate time to digest the feedback received, the spirit and intent of the firearms pointing incident notification policy remains the same,” Agostini said.
The department submitted a draft of the policy to the consent decree Independent Monitoring Team and the Illinois Attorney General’s office on the week of May 6 and got notes back about a week and a half ago, Agostini said.
He said CPD also submitted a draft of a bulletin designed by its training division last week and has not received feedback on that yet.
Representatives for the monitoring team and the attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the delay Monday afternoon.