CHICAGO — The Southern Poverty Law Center and others are asking the city to release records of an investigation involving police officers’ alleged ties to the Oath Keepers.
A group of aldermen are calling for a public hearing in city council on an internal investigation.
“We’re working on monitoring recruitment and infiltration of law enforcement organizations across the country and I pushed my team to respond to this case in Chicago,” Jeff Tischauser, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said.
The law center sent a letter to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling on Tuesday concerning the outcome of a CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs investigation into nine officers with alleged ties to the extremist group The Oath Keepers.
The letter is co-signed by half a dozen alderpeople and the Leaders Network who are upset those officers didn’t face discipline.
“If there are individuals who have been sworn to serve and protect if they reduce themselves to that type of ideology or affiliation, then yes I still stand by my position that those individuals should not receive the honor to wear the badge of the CPD,” Johnson said.
It was a campaign promise of Johnson and a statement he made just two days before the release of the report
“Our internal affairs has reached out to everyone to gather information to determine if these officers were actually proven members of hate groups,” Snelling said.
In the police department’s investigation, the Bureau of Internal Affairs ruled the allegations against the officers were not substantiated following interviews with the members and based on the evidence available, said the officers did not actively participate or attend any Oath Keeper related events or activities.
“On this leaked membership list, it includes names, addresses, contact information, email addresses, as well as dates they signed up for the membership, the level they selected as well as credit card information,” Tischauser said.
In January, a new city police policy was adopted that prohibits officers from being members of groups that are based in bias, like The Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.
Some question why that order is not being enforced.
“It’s their job to figure out how to discipline these officers and there’s rules they broke, they admitted to breaking them, so to not discipline them, it further emboldens impunity within the ranks,” Tischauser said.
This is the third probe into officers with documented ties to far-right extremist groups, but only one member with ties to The Proud Boys has been disciplined.
The inspector general recommended the officer be fired, but instead, he received a 120-day suspension.
The inspected general will be reviewing this CPD investigation as well.
