Reeling for months since the Laquan McDonald shooting put an unflattering national spotlight on the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday took an important step in trying to repair the damage by introducing longtime cop Eddie Johnson, an African-American, as the city's new interim police superintendent.
Proclaiming Johnson had the "command, character and capability to lead the department at this critical juncture," Emanuel vowed his unexpected choice for the job would restore confidence in the Chicago Police Department among the public and its officers.
"I am confident that Eddie Johnson can confront the culture that has undermined trust in the community and has affected the morale of the rank-and-file," Emanuel said. "And by successfully confronting these challenges, he and the men and women of the department and members of our community will make our city safer. I know we can do it, and I know we must do it."
The mayor's decision came as he openly noted his concern about the Police Department's sinking morale and sources close to his administration privately expressed their displeasure with the quality of the 39 candidates who applied for the position. Emanuel's move to promote Johnson from chief of patrol, a job he had for just three months, to run the entire department came as black and Latino aldermen demanded Emanuel hire a minority from inside CPD.
In doing so, Emanuel officially scrapped a list of three finalists his appointed Police Board sent him after conducting a national search to replace former superintendent Garry McCarthy, who the mayor fired during the public fallout over the McDonald shooting. Instead, Emanuel hired a guy who didn't even apply for the job.
Johnson, a 27-year member of the force who began his career as a beat officer, said he wanted to support John Escalante, the interim superintendent Emanuel named in December who was not chosen as a finalist for the permanent position.
Making his debut at a news conference at police headquarters in Bronzeville, Johnson appeared confident and at ease as he used the moment to address the city's 12,000-strong police force and a city he acknowledged his department must work hard to win back over.
"I want to focus my brief remarks on one word. It is at the heart of good policing, safe communities and it's the simple challenge facing Chicago today. That word is trust," Johnson said. "Trust between the police and the people we serve. Trust between the rank-and-file and the command staff. Trust between police and elected officials and community leaders. And trust among police officers, who both must watch each other's back and hold each other to high standards.
"I am absolutely, absolutely confident we can meet this challenge."
Emanuel's hiring of Johnson is rooted in the aftermath of the McDonald controversy, which outraged many Chicagoans, drove down cops' morale and left the mayor scrambling for fixes amid weeks of street protests, cover-up accusations and calls for his resignation.
For much of a year, Emanuel fought to keep a police dashboard camera video of the shooting under wraps, arguing it would hinder state and federal investigations into the case. But in November, a Cook County judge ordered him to release the video to the public.
At first, Emanuel stood by McCarthy, defended the city's investigation of police shootings and resisted a federal civil-rights investigation into his police department. He quickly reversed his position on all three, firing McCarthy, welcoming the ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe and giving a speech in which he acknowledged some Chicago cops use a code of silence to cover up the wrongdoing of their colleagues.
The year-plus interval between the shooting and murder charges against white Officer Jason Van Dyke for shooting black teen McDonald 16 times already played a huge role in State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's primary election loss this month. And the December release of police reports in which five officers offered accounts of the shooting that varied dramatically from the video -- which revealed McDonald was walking away from officers, not toward them -- also ratcheted up public mistrust.
Now Emanuel is counting on Johnson, a familiar face to aldermen and neighborhood leaders, to convince the city's African-American community that the Police Department will be reformed while also energizing wary cops who recently have made fewer arrests and conducted far fewer street stops. The challenge of that balancing act became apparent in Johnson's remarks Monday.
"Countless incidents of courage and professionalism far outweigh the few examples of excessive force. Nevertheless, these incidents -- no matter how isolated -- undermine our entire department and our relationship with the community," he said. "We have to own it and we have to end it."
One of the consistent criticisms of Emanuel during his five-plus years as mayor is that he has run Chicago from his fifth-floor City Hall office while seeking little input from, or building consensus with, community leaders.
Emanuel repeatedly sought to strike a tone of inclusiveness as he introduced Johnson, mentioning he'd taken part in numerous community meetings to receive feedback on the Police Department while also meeting with cops at roll calls and other functions. Both groups, he said, stressed the importance of beat cops and how the department needs to beef up its community policing efforts, and Emanuel noted Johnson started as a beat cop and most recently oversaw that group of officers, the largest in CPD, for the entire department.
"I also kept hearing about all the attributes our next police superintendent should have," Emanuel said of his meetings. "A proven crime-fighter. Someone who knows Chicago. Someone who can mentor our officers and someone with impeccable integrity. Someone who has those attributes is Eddie Johnson."
Before he chose Johnson, the Police Board had given Emanuel three finalists to select from: Eugene Williams, chief of the Police Department's bureau of support services; Cedric Alexander, a public safety director in DeKalb County, Ga.; and Anne Kirkpatrick, an FBI instructor and former police chief of Spokane, Wash. When news of Emanuel's decision to name Johnson to the post emerged over the weekend, the mayor's office released a statement saying none of the finalists "were the complete package Chicago needs at this time."
Johnson, however, is that package, said Emanuel, who stressed that his community meetings led him to that conclusion.
"I believe Eddie Johnson has everything the city needs. I believe the other three all have qualities and strengths. I take nothing away from them," Emanuel said. "But when I looked at everything we have to do and the challenges, I believe Eddie Johnson is the right person at the right time."
Still, Emanuel did direct the Police Board to conduct another search. City code requires Emanuel to select a police superintendent from a slate of candidates presented by the board, which is appointed by the mayor.
Pressed if there was any chance he'd still select someone other than Johnson to have the job permanently, Emanuel responded, "I suppose, in the end of the day, yes."
But then Emanuel cracked a smile and said, "I will just say it this way: When the Police Board runs their process, I asked Eddie to apply this time."
Hours before the mayor appeared with Johnson, black and Latino aldermen took a victory lap for the part they played in Emanuel's decision to pick a minority Police Department veteran. Last week, the Black Caucus and Latino Caucus had separate news conferences demanding a public hearing with the finalists to discuss their qualifications and ask questions.
On Monday, leaders of the two groups lauded their cooperation as a key factor in driving the process, though they were careful not to throw their victory in Emanuel's face. "By working together, great things happen, and I think Eddie Johnson's a product of that," said 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas, the Latino Caucus chairman.
Cardenas and 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer, who chairs the Black Caucus, also painted the work their groups did together to pressure Emanuel as the beginning of further collaboration as they try to take a more prominent role in shaping city policy.
"Really what the gist of this is about is the Latino Caucus, the Black Caucus are continuing to work together toward transformative change in the city of Chicago," Sawyer said. "Let's be quite honest here. The city is comprised of a majority of black and Latino members. We're the majority."
The duo, however, passed up a chance to send a message that they will be dictating terms to Emanuel on issues in favor of a softer sell.
"(It's) not a power play," Sawyer said. "But just respect our communities. I think the mayor understands that and I believe that he will respect that, that we're making sure that the type of government that we exist in -- which is a strong-council, weak-mayor form of government, that's the government that we exist in -- we want to make sure that it happens for the benefit of the citizens of the city of Chicago."
In practice, however, the mayor has long been a much more powerful figure in Chicago government than the 50-member City Council. And the city's black and Latino communities historically have had a fraught political relationship, shown recently when mayoral challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, amid black voters' distrust of Emanuel, lost to the mayor in black-majority wards in their head-to-head 2015 election despite Garcia's attempts to build a "black-brown coalition."
For his part, the mayor sought to downplay the influence of aldermen on his decision. He jokingly said that for five years, every alderman in the city has been expressing to him who their favored candidates are for commanders in charge of police districts that cover their wards and which officers should be promoted.
"They're not shy," he said. "I listen to them."
But asked what role pressure from aldermen played in the selection of Johnson, Emanuel quickly offered a confident answer.
"None," he said.
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