Testimony of Barry Friedman to the CHICAGO cITY Council COMMITTEE on Public Safety

“Creating a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability,” January 23, 2020

Overview

Policing Project Faculty Director Barry Friedman was invited by the Chicago City Council Committee on Public Safety to testify regarding a proposed ordinance to create a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA). Professor Friedman spoke to the creation of CCPSA as a means of promoting front-end accountability in Chicago policing and how the body could work with the Neighborhood Policing Initiative (NPI), a pilot program the Policing Project launched in partnership with the Chicago Police Department (CPD).

Key TakeAways

1). Though Chicago already has a number of oversight bodies, many are aimed at back-end accountability and are not explicitly designed to work on the front end with independent agenda-setting authority. The Policing Project believes front-end accountability is particularly important for systemic change.

2). The Policing Project supports front-end bodies that have democratic legitimacy—meaning representatives of the people have a say in how policing occurs—and collaborate with law enforcement from the outset to minimize feelings of “second-guessing.” The Policing Project believes the CCPSA ordinance shows the expectation of both democratic legitimacy and collaboration with CPD on the making of policy.

3). The Policing Project believes a front-end body as outlined in the CCPSA ordinance will be valuable for supporting the work of the Neighborhood Policing Initiative—specifically by providing additional support to the Community Ambassadors who identify and solve neighborhood problems in partnership with CPD officers.