FOP seeks extension of moratorium on moving CPD disciplinary cases through police board

As the fight over the future of police discipline in Chicago carries on, attorneys for the largest Chicago police officers’ union have asked a county judge to extend a moratorium on more than a dozen pending disciplinary cases involving CPD officers.

The motion to extend the stay on police board hearings was filed Tuesday by attorneys for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the union representing active rank and file CPD officers and detectives, as well as retirees. The union is now asking Judge Michael T. Mullen to indefinitely extend his previous order that paused all pending cases currently on the Chicago Police Board’s docket until Feb. 25.

The FOP argues that a handful of officers currently facing serious disciplinary charges will be “irreparably injured” if the Feb. 25 deadline is not extended, according to the motion presented to the judge Wednesday.

“Because the City Council voted once again to reject the Arbitration Award, Police Officers represented by the (the FOP) are continuing to be denied their statutory right to grievance arbitration to resolve disciplinary disputes,” the union wrote in its Tuesday motion. “If the Court does not continue the current stay of Police Board proceedings and instead allows it to expire on February 25th, these Officers will be irreparably injured by being forced to proceed before the Police Board.”

Attorneys for the city have yet to respond to the FOP’s motion, and the next hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 26.

During a hearing at the Daley Center Wednesday, Mullen said the case is among his top priorities because “this is a significant issue for our entire community.”

Mullen’s initial order came earlier this month after the City Council once again voted down a provision of the proposed FOP contract that would allow the most serious CPD misconduct cases to be heard and decided behind closed doors by a third party.That potential change — part of an arbitration award issued to the FOP during contract negotiations last summer — would upend more than 60 years of precedent in the city’s police discipline apparatus.

Edwin Benn, the arbitrator who oversaw the negotiations between the city and union, said that CPD officers have the right to arbitrate discipline cases because they are public sector employees represented by a collective bargaining unit.

After the City Council’s last rejection, the union asked Mullen to enter an order to put the arbitration award in effect, citing the Illinois Uniform Arbitration Act. In their first response to the union’s complaint, attorneys for the city said the FOP had misread state labor law.

“Defendants admit that the Lodge seeks the stated relief but deny that the Uniform Arbitration Act applies and deny that the Lodge is entitled to any relief,” city attorneys wrote.

FOP attorney Tim Grace has represented CPD officers in police board cases since 2017. In an affidavit submitted to Mullen on Tuesday, Grace said the union’s latest motion only applies to 15 CPD officers currently facing disciplinary charges.

Of those 15 officers, Grace said, eight remain on no-pay status, and the delay in their disciplinary proceedings has caused them great hardship. Cook County court records show that at least two of those eight officers have quit CPD in recent months.

More than 20 pending cases on the police board’s docket — with allegations ranging from improper use of deadly force to drug use to domestic abuse — have been paused while the legal fight proceeds.While the proposed contract’s disciplinary provision remains up in the air, the City Council last year unanimously approved all other aspects of the contract, including a 20% raise for CPD officers over four years.