More than 150 South Side residents and community stakeholders gathered at St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham Wednesday to give feedback on the ongoing search for the next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, with last weekend’s downtown violence on the minds of many.
The meeting, organized by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, came just a day after outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot questioned CPD leaders about the department’s tactical response to the chaotic gathering of young people. Two teen boys were shot near Millennium Park on Saturday — 11 months after another teen was shot and killed there.
Throughout the two hours of public comment, several speakers made reference to the events that unfolded Saturday in the center of the city.
“Parents need to be charged and penalized for their children’s behavior,” one speaker, Flora Williams, said to applause. “Until we do that nothing is going to change.”
A flyer advertising another “teen takeover” at Millennium Park this Saturday has circulated on social media in recent days. Another speaker at St. Sabina, Matt Brandon, told the members of the commission that he and dozens of other men from South Shore were planning go downtown then to meet with youth who may be looking to start trouble.
“Whoever our police superintendent is can only be as strong as the community that stands behind them,” Brandon said to another round of applause.
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More than 40 people stepped to the microphone to offer suggestions and critiques on a range of issues facing the CPD and its rank-and-file, including officer burnout, disrespectful treatment of civilians and the department’s murder clearance rate.
Wednesday’s meeting at St. Sabina Church was the second organized by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, the newly formed city agency tasked with evaluating applicants and submitting three finalists for the job by mid-July to mayor-elect Brandon Johnson.
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The application process opened on April 7, and prospective applicants have until May 7 to submit their materials for consideration.
Leaders of the commission have vowed to keep the evaluation and selection process as public as possible. The first meeting was held in Austin last week, where more than a dozen residents voiced support for retired CPD Chief Ernest Cato III.
Cato was a finalist for the superintendent job in 2020, though Mayor Lori Lightfoot ultimately selected David Brown, the former chief of police in Dallas. Cato abruptly retired from the CPD in late 2022 after three decades with the department. Reached by phone last week, Cato declined to comment on his future job plans and the support he enjoys on the West Side.
Several more speakers endorsed Cato on Wednesday, but other potential candidates also garnered support, including CPD Chief Larry Snelling, Deputy Chief Rahman Muhammad and Cmdr. Roderick Watson.
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The commission has another public meeting, to be held over Zoom, scheduled for April 25. The next in-person meeting is set for May 4 at Roosevelt High School in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Commission leaders have said that more meetings could be scheduled in other parts of the city, too.
Once sworn in, Johnson can select his nomination for the next superintendent from the three submitted finalists, or he can instruct the commission to start the process over. Whoever is selected will then need approval from the full City Council.
Johnson, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and several current and former police officials have all said they would prefer the next superintendent to come from within CPD. Anthony Driver Jr., the president of the commission, has pledged that all candidates, regardless of where they’ve worked, will be subject to the same scrutiny.
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