Chicago is racking up dozens of shootings every weekend. Its police department is under pressure, and rightly so, to stop dragging its feet on reform. So the city’s next police superintendent will have arguably the most important job in Chicago, after the mayor.
An independent search for the best candidates, now being conducted by the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability, is critical. And outside noise, like the letter from 19 alderpersons carping because their preferred candidate didn’t make the cut, is an unnecessary distraction.
Let the commission do its job without interference, though luckily it seems commission president Anthony Driver is unfazed by the letter. Telling, it was sent first to the media via a public relations firm, as the Sun-Times’ Tom Schuba and Fran Spielman reported.
Was the goal here simply to express their opinion and support for a candidate, something they, like everyone else, have a right to do?
Or was it to put outside pressure on the commission, in the good old Chicago way, and perhaps lay the groundwork for more complaints when the finalists are announced in the coming weeks?
The answer seems obvious, given the letter’s statement that declining to interview Chief of Patrol Brian McDermott in person “calls into question the validity of the search process and community listening tour” since residents at one community meeting voiced strong support for McDermott.
That’s how job searches work. Even talented candidates — and McDermott is surely among them — sometimes fall short.
Both Driver and Mayor Brandon Johnson, who will make the final pick from among the finalists sent to him by the commission, have made it clear they respect McDermott.
Driver described the episode as “frustrating” and “completely inappropriate,” “the Chicago way” in action. He rightly noted that getting away from politics in hiring is exactly why the commission was created.
Meanwhile, here’s the irony of it all, as former city Inspector General Joe Ferguson pointed out: Most of the council members who signed the letter voted in favor of creating the commission process they are now questioning.
“The commission is showing it is above politics and is trying to pick just on merit, and is now being undermined for doing just that,” Ferguson said.
There’s a time, a place and the right forum to express your views — and to echo Ferguson, this wasn’t it.
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