MAYOR’S

OFFICE STATEMENT 11/11/2020:

"Since her days leading the Police Accountability Task Force (PATF), Mayor Lightfoot has
been clear that body-worn cameras represent a fundamental obligation from the City to not
only provide residents with full transparency into incidents involving police officers but to
ensure full accountability. That's why four years ago the PATF directed the Department to
roll out and evaluate body cameras with the goal of providing every police officer who
regularly interacts with the public with one. Since the roll-out, Chicago Police Department
officers have activated their body-worn cameras more than 11.7 million times.

"Over the past year, the City has taken a number of steps to not only strengthen compliance
among officers but also expand the Department's body-worn camera program. In fact, just
this past summer, the City negotiated with its vendor to receive more than 500 additional
body-worn cameras to further ensure that every CPD officer on a citywide team is
equipped at all times. Furthermore, the Department's Office of Constitutional Policing &
Reform has been working closely with the Independent Monitoring Team (IMT) this
summer to create a strengthened plan to ensure compliance among all officers with body-
worn cameras, including more detailed aspects of compliance such as the extent to which
officers properly record interactions with the City’s residents. In accordance with existing
policies and the consent decree, the Audit Division has begun work on a series of reviews to
assess compliance, with its most recent efforts having taken place this fall. As part of this
ongoing effort to strengthen the Department's BWC program, the Mayor's Office will
continue to work with CPD on any and all improvements to these practices and protocols to
ensure not only nothing short of full compliance with the directives related to body-worn
cameras but that all officers who are found not to be in compliance are disciplined in
accordance with the Department's policies and collective bargaining agreement."