CHICAGO — Earlier this year, the former federal prosecutor evaluating the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered efforts to reform itself took the department to task in an unusual letter.
Maggie Hickey, the independent monitor, wrote that some resistance to reform has come from those in the department “who believe crime reduction is separate from, or even opposed to, reform efforts.”
The words were viewed by some as a wake-up call for the department, which has made some gains in complying with court-mandated reforms in recent years, but has also struggled with the cultural changes necessary to make them take hold in a meaningful way.
