Decision for CPD superintendent should rely on untapped expertise
Chicago Urban League leader can be an invaluable resource
It looks as though Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson hit a home run in selecting retired Chicago Police Department Commander Fred Waller to serve as interim superintendent. Waller returns to the department where he distinguished himself in a postive way during his 34-year career. Both Johnson and Waller acknowledge the latter’s role is not intended to give him an edge for the permanent superintendent’s job.
The search for the permanent superintendent is being conducted by an independent committee. This panel will recommend three candidates to Johnson, who will be in office by then. He has the option to pick one of the three or tell the panel to keep searching. Undoubtedly, Waller will be asked to weigh in on the selection.
The new mayor can enhance his knowledge of what goes into selecting a top-rated superintendent by picking up the phone and calling the CEO of the Chicago Urban League-Karen Freeman-Wilson. Not only does she head up the oldest civil rights organization in the city; she was intimately involved with President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Additionally, she is a board member of the National Policing Institute.
Atop of those credentials, Freeman-Wilson is a former two-term mayor of Gary, In. -the first female African-American mayor in that state; as well as former Indiana Attorney General, former chairwoman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Working Group of Mayors and Police Chiefs. The former executive director of the National Drug Court Institute and CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, where she had served as board vice chair, are part of her other law enforcement credentials. The insights and experience she could provide a first-term mayor are invaluable.
Freeman-Wilson can offer a national and forward looking perspective on policing and what should be best practices that those around the mayor-elect currently can’t do. It would make a tremendous amount of sense to continue to rely on her expertise and knowledge base even after the permanent superintendent is in place.
Another major plus for the mayor will be that Freeman-Wilson comes with an independent mind regarding possible selections, and ideas on improving community-police relations. In a February 2015 interview with the Northwest Indiana Times she said "I believe our role as mayors is to provide our police departments with the resources they need to get the job done," Freeman-Wilson said. "Those resources can be money or equipment, or something less tangible, such as creating an atmosphere that makes it easier for our officers to get the job done."
And elaborated with “city leaders need to examine policing from the viewpoints of officers and their unions, the departments as a whole, city government and the justice system.
"In Gary, I use my convening power as mayor to involve the whole community," she said. "I address the big picture and work with our chief to relate it to law enforcement."