Chicago City Wire

The Chicago police union says that Mayor Lori Lightfoot is making the police the whipping boy for “chronic violence that permeates our city.”

“Ludicrous claims that we are not doing our jobs, and other claims like the ones that we associated with white supremacists, have already emerged within the past few months,” the FOP wrote in a June 14 open letter to the citizens of Chicago. The letter was signed by FOP vice presidents Patrick Murray and Martin Preib, and Robert Bartlett, co-chair, legal defense.

The FOP cites the mayor’s unwillingness to negotiate over her proposed police reforms (a stand she reiterated at a Wednesday City Council meeting), reforms they say are ideologically based rather than based on “sound policing policies.”

Chicago FOP Board of Directors | Chicago FOP website

“We believe this policy is unfair, shortsighted, biased and could also have dire consequences for the city of Chicago,” the letter said.

One proposed Lightfoot reform, Point and Report, would require paperwork every time an officer draws and points his weapon, a policy that has “no provable benefit.” It would only further expose the police to “frivolous, bogus allegations through the suspect data collection and interpretation of the anti-police movement that is at work in our city,” the letter said.

The letter also calls out the absence of suggested reforms for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office, which has a “revolving door policy for criminals, and too-cozy relationship with the law firms who specialize in lawsuits against the city.”

“Lightfoot’s refusal to deal with the FOP undermines the possibility for immediately addressing crime,” the letter said. "We ask the citizens of Chicago to encourage Mayor Lightfoot to initiate a dialogue with us, as we can provide insight, research, and perspective in a manner no other party can."

In an earlier letter, the FOP called on the mayor to fight and not settle civil actions against the city brought by two exonerated criminals — one convicted of rape and torture and another of rape and murder. The police and prosecutors believe the men guilty, and trials would show that they were rightfully convicted and imprisoned.