Chicago police oversight panel to push new outside investigation into cops with extremist ties

A police oversight panel will vote this week to urge the city’s top watchdog to investigate extremism within the Chicago Police Department following a recent series by WBEZ, the Sun-Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, a civilian-led panel with broad oversight powers, will vote Thursday whether to recommend the city’s Office of the Inspector General “investigate recent allegations of officer involvement with extremists or hate-based organizations,” according to the agenda for its monthly meeting.

Tuesday’s announcement came right after Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling assured City Council members there would be “stringent” efforts to root out extremists and “remove those members from our ranks.”

Commissioner Yvette Loizon said the CCPSA’s appeal to Inspector General Deborah Witzburg was influenced by the publication of the “Extremism in the Ranks” series, which linked 27 current and former Chicago cops to the anti-government Oath Keepers, nine of whom remain on active duty. It also showed that a prior police investigation of cops associated with the Oath Keepers did not include all the officers alleged to be involved.

Witzburg has slammed the police department’s investigations into officers linked to the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Three Percenters, pushing the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs to reopen three separate cases.

On Tuesday, Witzburg said she welcomes the commission’s input and the possible referral while noting her office has already “been working on this issue from a case-specific perspective for a long time now.”

“We take the issue of extremism in the police department tremendously seriously,” Witzburg said. “We brought these cases to light. We have stayed at it. We will have more to say about this issue from a programmatic perspective looking at how the police department is handling these cases and what we can do differently going forward.

“It’s hard to imagine a more pressing issue than this in police oversight in Chicago right now.”

She previously said Mayor Brandon Johnson can and should keep his promise to fire officers aligned with extremist organizations, pointing to broad rules that prohibit cops from discrediting the department and undermining its goals.

Internal Affairs Chief Yolanda Talley told alderpersons Tuesday officers linked to the Oath Keepers were now being targeted in an investigation she promised to wrap up “in less than six months.” An earlier probe was closed after police department officials determined that joining the group didn’t warrant a rule violation.

That investigation was launched after National Public Radio reported in November 2021 that a group of Chicago cops was found on a leaked membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a far-right group at the center of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Yet internal investigators didn’t obtain that list, and a stark warning from the Anti-Defamation League was apparently overlooked. As the investigation was playing out, the ADL wrote an email to the police department’s second-ranking official and provided the names of as many as eight Chicago police officers on the leaked rolls.

“It is important to note that inclusion on this list means that at some point they signed up for membership,” the ADL wrote to then-First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter back in August 2022. “The fact that a member of law enforcement joined the Oath Keepers is extremely concerning and warrants investigation.”

But the probe targeting three officers wasn’t expanded, and it was closed within months. No one was disciplined.

Pressed about the letter and its contents last week, a police spokesperson said those allegations were under investigation.

Internal Affair has also come under heavy fire for its handling of Officer Robert Bakker, who lied to investigators about his close ties to the neofascist Proud Boys, another group involved in the Capitol riot. He ultimately entered into a mediation agreement and was suspended for 120 days, drawing criticism from alderpersons and activists who called for his dismissal.

The community commission is now working with the police department to expand an existing policy that bars officers from associating with “criminal organizations,” like street gangs. A draft policy would also bar “active participation” in “biased” groups that use violence to deny others’ rights, achieve ideological goals or advocate for “systemic illegal prejudice, oppression, or discrimination.”

Perhaps most notably, the draft prohibits membership in groups that “seek to overthrow, destroy, or alter the form of government of the United States by unconstitutional means.”

However, Witzburg has insisted there are already rules on the books that prohibit cops from joining extremist groups.

Loizon said the police department is now at a “turning point” in its efforts to restore its frayed relationship with the public, and she credited Snelling’s commitment to get rid of cops with extreme beliefs. He was among the three finalists the commission presented to Mayor Johnson following a first-of-its kind superintendent search that resulted in his selection.

“I want to make sure that the community feels that commitment, and they feel like it was legitimate, and they feel like we are all working toward creating a Chicago Police Department that Chicagoans can be really proud of,” she said of Snelling’s stance. “And so I think that this is the right step in that direction, and I’m hoping that a solid, expedient, neutral investigation could bridge a lot of gaps between communities and police officers.”

Tom Schuba covers police for the Sun-Times. Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.