Vallas, Johnson distance themselves from past comments on curbing crime at public safety forum

Mayoral hopefuls Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas expanded on their different approaches to tackling crime in the city during a debate on public safety Tuesday at the UIC Forum.

Both candidates appeared to take a step back from comments they have made in the past about their philosophies toward solving the issue, which has dominated much of the mayoral campaign so far. 

Over the years, Johnson, a Cook County commissioner, has called defunding police a “goal,” not a political slogan. He has steered clear of the term during his mayoral campaign but has continued to call for cutting the police budget and investing in jobs and affordable housing. 

When debate moderator Laura Washington asked him to clarify his stance on defunding the police, Johnson distanced himself from his past comments. 

“There are people who want to see the police budget defunded. I said it was a political goal, I never said it was mine,” Johnson said, drawing groans from the hundreds packed into the forum. “I’m asking for us to spend money to make sure that people have somewhere to live, a job, access to healthcare.” 

Vallas, who was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, has called for the city to increase the number of rank-and-file officers by hundreds. The former Chicago Public Schools chief executive was asked by moderator Eric Zorn about statements he’s made in the past about “taking the handcuffs off” of police so they can do their jobs.

Vallas asked Zorn to “please let me know where I said that,” adding that “the bottom line is I have talked about restoring proactive policing that is consistent with the consent decree, and I’ve said that over and over again.” 

During a fact-checking section later in the debate, the moderators told Vallas that the handcuff comments were from a December article in the Sun-Times, drawing laughter from the crowd. Vallas responded by saying, “That was the characterization of what I said. It’s not what I’m articulating, I’m simply talking about proactive policing.”

In the article, Vallas is quoted as saying: “The officers we do have are demoralized and handcuffed. There is no incentive to engage in proactive policing. And the criminals know it, and they’re becoming bolder. There is an utter breakdown of law and order.”

Vallas said the police department can recruit new officers from schools with ROTC programs in Chicago. In response to Vallas’ call to hire more officers and bring back retirees to bolster units, Johnson said the city can’t afford to wait for those officers to be sworn in. 

“Everything that Paul is talking about has already proven to fail,” Johnson said. “It takes two years to become a police officer. Do we have two years to wait for public safety in Chicago?” he asked audience members, many of whom responded with a loud “no!”

Johnson talked about his proposal to promote 200 officers to detective to speed up murder clearance rates, which he said will increase confidence in the community and lead to more cooperation with police. 

“Simply promoting 200 officers to the detectives division is not going to solve the problem of crime in Chicago,” Vallas said of the plan. 

Johnson responded by asking, “So having detectives to solve crime doesn’t solve crime in the city of Chicago?” 

But the two candidates also found some common ground on how to help young people who live in high-crime areas. Vallas and Johnson both proposed expanding jobs programs for high school students.

Vallas and Johnson also said they would be committed to reducing homicides in the city, but neither provided a specific numerical goal for their first year in office. Chicago saw 695 murders in 2022, according to police department data.