SCC Time Machine

Someone with far more time than we have, remembered this post from a number of years back. It was about a Cook County consent decree and what the CPD could expect moving forward from 2018. Any of this sound familiar?

• One: you will attract less and less talented applicants. Less and less people want to work for CPD or be the police in general. The Darren Wilson/JasonVan Dyke cases, de-policing in general since 08/09, increased micromanagement and metrics-based supervision for suburban departments and weaker organized labor all contribute. Not only that, but you have an economy that is insanely good: unemployment nationally at 3.7%? Hasn't been this good in decades and more better-paying jobs are to be found elsewhere- with stock options and bonuses.
  
  Two: with low-talent applicants, you will hire low-talent people. Which means over the long-term, low-talent officers will be promoted to low-talent so-called-Sergeants.
  
  Three: increase in cameras. There will be more cameras that you know what to do with. In locker rooms, in break rooms, put up in blind spots in the station, in lockups, everywhere. You'll have body cameras for every officer in the department. You'll have dash-mounted cameras inside the squad car aimed at the officers inside. You'll have cameras mounted in the cage in the vehicle. The camera systems will be Ultra-High Def 4K shit, with great zoom lenses, and audio capability. They will be able to be real-time streamed. These cameras will be able to be accessed by command staff ay any time, any where. Directors in CCSO can access this shit from their houses, from their iPads. And they do. They will watch the cameras from home, call into the jail and ask Chiefs, Superintendents, Lieutenants and whoever they want, why officers are doing certain things. This happens daily to us and it will happen daily to you.
  
  Four: increase in civilian directors and oversight. You'll have civilians who are not the police, being put in charge of units, groups and teams. These people are not your friends.
  
  Five: New units for Use of Force Review, Video Monitoring, Internal Affairs, etc... You'll have re-organized units, re-structured units, new units and the like. Lots of juice babies will be placed in this units. The administration will fight you tooth and nail and a lot of the people in these units will not investigate Use of Force incidents correctly.
  
  Six: A hell of a lot of discipline. They'll rewrite the entire General Orders of CPD. They'll fight the FOP on everything, hire a lot more lawyers and they will push for the maximum amount of discipline possible for a lot more officers. They will make examples. They will suspend without pay. They will push to fire more officers, by a factor of 5 at least from that the current level is. There is no mistaking it, people will absolutely lose their jobs.
  
  Seven: The Department will drown the union with more and more lawyers and opposition and struggle during normal operations. Everything from lunches to reliefs to overtime, to uniform/appearance standards, to medical call-ins, FMLA use and the pettiest stuff imaginable. This will increase the workload on the stewards in the districts and units and also the union office, making the office do more and more work. It will make you choose your battles more and it will make officers have less and less faith in the union.
  
  Eight: A ton of good officers will retire. They will be fired. They will stop caring. They'll become even more cynical and jaded that they are now. They'll impact the younger generation and then, they too, will become lazy and not care. More officers will transfer to suburban departments, federal agencies or choose different paths altogether. The department attrition will increase substantially, which will make officers invest less and less in their careers and themselves.
  
  Nine: After years of mismanagement and sinking morale, after hundreds of officers are fired and hundreds more leave, the department will change direction slightly and try to "improve" it. Special teams, special units, special work hours/shifts/days off, perks, etc., will be offered. Those Use of Force units, Internal Affairs and the administration will realize what has happened and try and fix it. This will happen slowly at first and then pick up speed. This is the phase the county is in now- especially at the jail. But the damage will be done.
  
  If you think this is bogus, ask officers who left the jail to come to CPD. County loses between 4-8 per month going to CPD. Talk to them in the districts. Everything I mentioned will happen, or has already started.

CPD is/was/has been hitting those bullet points pretty consistently. We're probably between Eight and Nine....and those "improvements" in Nine will never happen.