Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx continues to push for special prosecutors, independent panel

When Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx was elected in 2016, she ran on the position that special prosecutors should be involved in deciding whether criminal charges should be brought to police officers accused of crimes involving shootings, particularly homicides.

In the six years since, prosecutors in her administration have never sought out special prosecutors. The case of Jason Van Dyke, the officer charged with the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014, was handled with a special prosecutor, though that occurred before Foxx took office.

“And the reason I still maintain that we need to have that level of independence for the public to be assured that we are not working in cahoots with law enforcement on these types of cases,” Foxx told DePaul student media on Feb. 17.

Foxx added that, logistically, “the law didn’t allow for us to be able to have a special prosecutor without there being an actual conflict.”

“And the courts found that just because prosecutors and police work together didn’t create an actual conflict,” Foxx said.

Other states have made similar calls for special prosecutors to investigate police corruption. In New York, lawmakers approved a special prosecutors unit in 2020 to investigate police-involved deaths.

According to the Chicago Tribune, procedures involving charging decisions in police criminal cases have changed since Foxx took office due to structural changes and Illinois law. When Foxx began her term, prosecutors would have to petition a judge in each individual case and allege a legal conflict of interest if they wanted a special prosecutor. The judge then decided if a special prosecutor could be appointed.

Foxx added that the State Attorney’s office has tried to implement other measures, such as secondary review, to assure the public and law enforcement that they are doing this work transparently.

“What happens is, is that we talk about, you know, the public who feels like these cases aren’t being handled well,” Foxx said. “But we also have a skeptical law enforcement, who says ‘Is she going to charge people for political will, for political gain?’”

For years, Chicago has established review agencies to address failures and instigate reforms within the police department. One such agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), was established in 2017 after McDonald’s death. COPA replaced the Independent Police Review Authority, which replaced the Office of Professional Standards in 2007.

Though COPA does have the ability to review the police department, they have very little power to enact substantial change, said DePaul criminology professor Rhonda DeLong.

“They can make recommendations, but they don’t have a lot of power to make change or to have the recommendations put into play,” she said. “And I think that needs to change.”

DeLong said that when it comes to law enforcement, it’s important to have others look into the police organization rather that “police investigating police.”

“I feel we need to hold them to a much higher standard just because, you know, they have the ability to take our lives in situations,” DeLong said.

Foxx said she believes Chicago needs to have an independent panel to look at these cases.

“Not because I don’t believe that we can do it, but because I believe the public in their need for transparency and accountability demands that,” Foxx said.

The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) has focused on stopping police crimes, including killings of civilians and abuse of power. For the last decade, its focus has been on the advocacy for community control of the police.

“Which we felt was a very important reform that would fundamentally change the relationship between the police and the community,” said Ted Pearson, co-chairperson of the CAARPR.

In line with their mission to create a proposal for a commission to independently review police crimes, two coalitions — the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) — created a joint ordinance to accomplish that goal.

This ordinance — the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability — would have the ability to draft and approve policy for the Chicago Police Department. In addition, it would be able to nominate candidates for superintendent and other positions within the city’s policing infrastructure.

“It contained a proposal for a referendum which would go to all the people in Chicago in an election and would allow the people to decide whether or not a commission itself should be directly elected by the people and whether or not it should have the power of being able to appoint a superintendent, where the superintendent would be responsible directly to the commission instead of the mayor,” Pearson said.

Though the compromise proposal was passed by the Chicago City Council in July 2021, the referendum proposal has yet to pass.

“And it’ll put Chicago in the most forward position in the country, in terms of real community control of the police, where the police are really accountable to the communities that they’re supposed to serve and protect,” Pearson said.

Foxx noted independent commissions enacted in other states that she thinks Chicago should follow.

California and New York have both taken the steps to implement independent commissions that serve to investigate and review their respective police departments.

“There are models in New York and California that I think we should be following here in Illinois and I’ll be continuing to push for that,” Foxx said.