CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s chief lawyer says he agrees court oversight is the best way to ensure police reforms are done right but that the Trump administration backed away from that approach.
Edward Siskel spoke to reporters Wednesday after community groups filed a federal lawsuit to force the city to implement reforms under judicial supervision. The lawsuit argues it’s the only way reforms will get done.
Siskel defended a draft agreement of the reforms that the mayor’s office says it negotiated last month with the U.S. Department of Justice. The draft outlines reforms that won’t be done in the form of a court-enforced consent decree.
Siskel says he wishes the Justice Department would have “followed through with their commitment to a consent decree” that was made in the last days of the Obama administration. Still, he says, the draft agreement will work.
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