Firing of city’s police reform chief is step in the wrong direction

Robert Boik was fired Tuesday as the Chicago Police Department’s executive director of the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform. (Chicago Police Department)

Chicago needs to send a clear and sustained message from the top of the police department on down if police reform is going to succeed.

The firing this week of Robert Boik, the police official in charge of overseeing the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered reform efforts, doesn’t send that message. Instead, it’s a step in entirely the wrong direction.