49 min
A.D. Q&A with Chicago Police Department whistleblower Chad Williams A.D. Q&A with A.D. Quig
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- Politics
The name of this week's guest, Chad Williams, might ring a bell if you’ve followed the lengthy debate about how the Chicago Police Department is meeting its reform mandates as part of the consent decree. Williams made a splash when his letter resigning from CPD’s audit division was made public in the Chicago Tribune in November. In it, Williams accused department leadership of pursuing superficial compliance with the court-ordered reforms. Their aim, he says, was to get better media coverage by “checking boxes” instead of creating lasting cultural change. Shortly after sending it, he was formally accused of “failure to promote the policies and goals of the department.” In this interview, he says that accusation came from top CPD brass as retaliation. This is the first time Williams is speaking out since he left the department. He offers new revelations about what happened during his three years at CPD. For one, he says CPD purposely buried reports his division completed, including about the use of dash and body cameras and administrative tickets. They've left others, including policies for treatment of juveniles under arrest, unresolved. Regarding that ticket report? He says senior reform leadership told him they wouldn’t turn it over to the consent decree monitor because it made the department "look bad." Williams also says hiring plans were held up by the current first deputy in the department, who he says had no business getting involved in auditing. He’s referred a complaint about that alleged interference with the city’s Inspector General.
The name of this week's guest, Chad Williams, might ring a bell if you’ve followed the lengthy debate about how the Chicago Police Department is meeting its reform mandates as part of the consent decree. Williams made a splash when his letter resigning from CPD’s audit division was made public in the Chicago Tribune in November. In it, Williams accused department leadership of pursuing superficial compliance with the court-ordered reforms. Their aim, he says, was to get better media coverage by “checking boxes” instead of creating lasting cultural change. Shortly after sending it, he was formally accused of “failure to promote the policies and goals of the department.” In this interview, he says that accusation came from top CPD brass as retaliation. This is the first time Williams is speaking out since he left the department. He offers new revelations about what happened during his three years at CPD. For one, he says CPD purposely buried reports his division completed, including about the use of dash and body cameras and administrative tickets. They've left others, including policies for treatment of juveniles under arrest, unresolved. Regarding that ticket report? He says senior reform leadership told him they wouldn’t turn it over to the consent decree monitor because it made the department "look bad." Williams also says hiring plans were held up by the current first deputy in the department, who he says had no business getting involved in auditing. He’s referred a complaint about that alleged interference with the city’s Inspector General.
49 min