Preparation is important to Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling. From the chiefs overseeing Chicago Police Department bureaus to young patrol officers, he wants everyone under his leadership to feel equipped to carry out their job duties.
After years of serving as a training academy instructor and an expert witness in use-of-force matters, Snelling is confident and well-spoken with a physically commanding presence.
He is in charge, and it’s clear he’s willing to mix it up.
But, Snelling says, finding his stride as the department’s leader is not actually about him.
“My job is to make sure everyone else has what they need to succeed,” Snelling told a recent City Club of Chicago luncheon. “Because if I worry about me and how I’m going to appear and what my legacy is going to be, then my focus is narrow. I need to broaden that focus because if I’m focused on success and the success of those around me and making sure those people who are actually going to keep this city safe and make sure that we’re successful, if I’m doing what I need to do for them, everything else will take care of itself.”
He recently became a grandfather, and catching up with his family, reading a book and watching the History Channel are still some of his preferred ways to unwind. But work is never not on his mind.
A year has now passed since Snelling, 55, and raised in Englewood, was unanimously approved as the CPD superintendent, a tenure that lasts, historically, about three to four years. With a busy year under his belt and the long-awaited DNC and the security concerns that came with it in the rearview mirror, he keeps looking forward.
A visible leader
Much of his first year as superintendent was marked by the 2024 Democratic National Convention and the department’s extensive preparation for the four-day event, during which time Snelling and his top deputies were a constant presence outside around the United Center and Union Park.
Praise for Snelling and the department was extensive in the wake of the event, and critics of his style so far have been few and far between.
Darryl Smith, a neighborhood violence interrupter and community activist in Englewood, was among those who endorsed Snelling for superintendent during the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability’s vetting process in summer 2023. Speaking with the Tribune this week, Smith credited Snelling’s openness and willingness to engage with average citizens and community groups.
“His interactions with community organizations and just having an open-door approach to the community, that’s something that I haven’t seen in many superintendents,” Smith said.
Throughout his first year as leader of CPD, Snelling has said that rebuilding trust is one of his top priorities, and he’s made plenty of calls for more collaboration between police and community residents. He raises this point at nearly every police board meeting and often gives shoutouts to a handful of South Side community leaders who attend the monthly meetings, too.
And that’s not for show, said Anthony Driver Jr., president of the CCPSA, the body that recommended Snelling and two others as finalists for the superintendent job last year.
“Larry Snelling is the type of person who straps on a bodycam and goes out and leads from the front,” Driver said. “He’s also the type of person who, the same person I get behind closed doors in meetings, is the same person who the public gets. He’s no different in meetings with political people, with our commission, with other folks, than he is with the public. He’s the exact same person. What you see is what you get. Definitely a man of his word.”
The largest controversy of Snelling’s early tenure came last March when a team of tactical officers fatally shot Dexter Reed during a traffic stop in the Harrison District (11th) on the city’s West Side. Police said Reed was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt, and he shot one of the officers who had surrounded his vehicle. The other officers then fired dozens of bullets at Reed, striking him 13 times. Reed’s family has since filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.
In April, dozens of demonstrators flocked to the board’s monthly meeting to decry Reed’s death. Snelling listened attentively and responded to many of the criticisms as they came.
Conflict, Snelling told the City Club last month, can help him stay sharp.
“I like a good fight, I’m just going to be honest with you,” Snelling said. “It keeps you on your toes. And even when someone writes something that you know is not the truth, I know the truth. So it doesn’t matter what someone writes. Someone writes or says something negative, I know the truth. So it’s water off a duck’s back. It doesn’t bother me.”
Trends show improvement
During Snelling’s first year atop the department, the city saw decreases in homicides, nonfatal shootings, robberies and car thefts, though overall crime totals still outpace pre-pandemic levels.
Gun violence, felt citywide, remains most concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods on the West and South sides that for decades have borne the brunt of disinvestment and neglect.
As of Sept. 15, CPD had opened 416 new murder investigations this year, compared with 457 in the same time frame a year earlier. Meanwhile, CPD officers still recover about 800 to 1,000 guns each month.
Through August, the department said its homicide clearance rate was 53%, “the highest, year to date, since 2015.”
Snelling told the City Club that CPD’s crime-fighting approach now “is more intelligence-based. We’re not just throwing police at a matter without a strategy behind it.”
“Having all of the bureaus working together is the most important thing right now because prior to that, we’ve been siloed,” Snelling said. “Each bureau was doing their own things. Now all the bureaus are working together toward the same strategy.”
His boss, Mayor Brandon Johnson, campaigned on a promise to end the city’s contract with SpotSpotter, the oft-criticized gunshot detection equipment and software that is designed to alert police to gunfire even if no one calls 911. After months of uncertainty, that pledge came to fruition early Monday when the devices and software were taken offline.
Several studies and analyses concluded that ShotSpotter did little, if anything, to reduce the rates of gun violence. But last March, the Tribune reported that CPD officers responding to ShotSpotter alerts had rendered lifesaving aid to hundreds of gunshot victims in recent years.
The city is now exploring other means to dispatch officers to gunfire without a 911 caller. During an interview last week, Snelling said the loss of ShotSpotter was no surprise, though the department did not have a replacement or alternative for the software and equipment. He added that CPD officers would be instructed to encourage members of the public to call 911 if they hear anything resembling gunfire.
“I’ve been anticipating it for awhile, and we’ve prepared to deal with not having it,” Snelling told the Tribune last week. “And not having it means that our officers are going to be out there doing the work that they do every single day. We’re going to dig a little deeper.”
Stabilizing from the top
Snelling regularly credits CPD command staff, several of whom — Antoinette Ursitti, chief of detectives; Yolanda Talley, chief of internal affairs; and Angel Novalez, chief of constitutional policing and reform — held their current ranks under the superintendent’s predecessor, David Brown.
One of Snelling’s first personnel decisions was to rehire Fred Waller, a longtime CPD supervisor who was chief of patrol under former Superintendent Eddie Johnson and who served as interim superintendent before Snelling was selected. Waller, now a civilian, serves as deputy director of the superintendent’s office. Since then, Snelling has promoted Duane DeVries and Jon Hein to chief in the bureaus of counterterrorism and patrol, respectively.
Driver Jr., president of the CCPSA, credited Snelling for having “stabilized the leadership of CPD.”
“In just the two years that I’ve been on this commission as CCPSA president, we’ve had four superintendents, so I think there was a need for stability,” Driver Jr. said. “I think he’s been able to accomplish that.”
“I also think there’s a lot of progress that still needs to be made, but the numbers, in general, are trending in the right direction,” Driver added. “I think he’s made a big difference in (officers’) morale, and also the way that he works with our commission and different community groups. I’ve also seen, sort of, an about-face with CPD with the way that they engage the community, as well.”
Snelling did not select a first deputy superintendent during his first year leading CPD, and he gave little indication that there is any rush to do so when speaking with the Tribune last week.
Snelling said he’s assumed most of the first deputy responsibilities himself with help from the CPD chiefs. He conceded that some find this approach “problematic” and he “would like a break every now and again,” but the arrangement, so far, has worked.
“I learn by diving into the deep end of the pool,” Snelling said. “I want to know every aspect of every job at the command staff position because it really helps me to develop and it helps me to have a better understanding of what to expect for the next person that I’m going to put in that position.”
“I think we’re effective right now with the work that we’ve been doing, and I believe that the leadership has really stepped up and has been a lot more effective than we’ve been in the past,” he added.
Shortly before he was confirmed by the City Council in September 2023, Snelling told a public forum in Pilsen that “there cannot be a one-size-fits-all strategy” to reduce crime as “each district has its own individual issues.”
Chicago police superintendents usually have a three- to four-year shelf life. As his first year comes to a close, Snelling said he is already thinking about who could lead CPD after his time at the helm is over.
It’s personal for him — almost familial. For much of his more than three decades with CPD, Snelling was a supervisor in the department’s training academy, where he sought to prepare young officers for the work awaiting them on the city’s streets.
“Having seen these people for over 20 years now, my kids are all grown up,” Snelling told the Tribune last week. “These young people are the future of the department. So what I think about right now is developing the next superintendent, the next first deputy, the next command staff member.”
“I think if I’m not developing people to step into my job, then I’m not doing my job,” he added.
A 2023 survey released by the Police Executive Research Forum found that police departments across the country were struggling to hire new officers at the pace of attrition. Data from the city’s office of inspector general show CPD employed about 13,300 officers in January 2019. As of August 2024, that total had fallen to about 11,600.
CPD is the largest city department by a wide margin. In 2024, the department’s budget was nearly $2 billion — a figure that will almost certainly grow again next year as CPD officers are set to receive pay raises — but the overall cost to fund the department and cover related expenses is far higher. The police department budget does not include overtime costs and settlement payments related to misconduct lawsuits — both of which balloon to hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Meanwhile, a long-awaited workforce allocation study is in the works, Snelling said last month, blaming “red tape” for the repeated delays.
Handling the DNC
CPD started preparing for the 2024 Democratic National Convention more than a year before the four-day political pep rally overtook the city’s Near West Side. Throughout the lead-up, Snelling sought to reassure the city of CPD officers’ training ahead of the anticipated protests. References to the infamous 1968 DNC were unavoidable, even as CPD opened up an officer training session to the media at McCormick Place.
In his frequent public remarks, the superintendent never strayed from his messages of preparation, communication and collaboration among CPD and other law enforcement agencies tasked with maintaining security in and around the convention.
Still numbering in the thousands, far fewer demonstrators showed up than were promised by local organizations. Meanwhile, only a handful of complaints were filed with COPA throughout the four days and the rest of the city carried on as the police department was stretched to its limit.
Snelling and other city officials held news briefings at 10 a.m. every day of the DNC. Afterward, the superintendent, with other members of the command staff, would remain in and around Union Park to monitor each day’s demonstrations and marches.
Friday morning, after not sleeping at all the night before, Snelling joined Mayor Johnson and other city leaders for a victory-lap news conference at City Hall. Despite any fatigue, Snelling’s pride was evident.
“Can we stop talking about 1968? — 2024 is the new standard, and the men and women of the Chicago Police Department set that new standard out in the field.”
Praise for CPD officers’ performance during the DNC was almost ubiquitous. Maggie Hickey, independent monitor of the federal consent decree, and her team were among those offering plaudits.
“The (independent monitoring team) observed that the city and police department had significantly prepared for the challenge,” Hickey said of the DNC during a consent decree status hearing earlier this month. “There were notable successes in our observations, including demonstrated de-escalation tactics, coordinated responses, limited uses of force, officer-wellness preparations and consistent leadership. Importantly, the Chicago Police Department’s preparation also included specific efforts by the city of Chicago and the CPD to hear from and work with the office of the Illinois attorney general and other members of Chicago communities and stakeholders.”
Officer discipline
The system for adjudicating the most serious cases of alleged CPD officer misconduct came to a halt soon after Snelling took over.
In summer 2023, an arbitrator overseeing contract negotiations between CPD and the Fraternal Order of Police ruled that CPD officers facing firing or lengthy suspensions have a choice whether their cases are heard and decided by a third party or the Chicago Police Board. Board proceedings are largely public, while arbitration hearings would be closed.
The rest of the CPD contract was approved by the City Council last year. The four-year agreement gives officers a roughly 20% pay raise while also creating another disciplinary adjudication system — the “Peoples’ Court” — that provides for single-day hearings and decisions in more minor disciplinary matters.
In March, Cook County Judge Michael T. Mullen ruled that officers may choose an arbitrator to decide disciplinary cases, but those arbitration hearings must remain publicly accessible. The FOP has since appealed that ruling, and the process for adjudicating serious discipline cases remains, effectively, frozen for the foreseeable future. Snelling and CPD’s Office of Legal Affairs have not brought administrative charges against any rank-and-file officer since Mullen’s order was announced.
While the future role of the police board remains undetermined, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability — another city agency subject to the federal consent decree — has continued to close out investigations and submit to Snelling their findings and recommendations.
Between January and mid-August, COPA had recommended that Snelling fire 50 different CPD officers for various rule violations. With the disciplinary adjudication process still on hold, Snelling and CPD’s lawyers have yet to respond to or act on any of those specific cases, including one involving an officer who worked under Snelling in the Englewood District (7th).
Most complaints of CPD misconduct are handled by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs, while COPA investigates when officers fire their guns. COPA also investigates allegations of domestic violence and verbal misconduct.
Snelling publicly lambasted COPA and agency investigators during the February meeting of the Chicago Police Board. He said the cases sent to him are often rife with anti-police biases and the recommended punishments are too severe.
“When we speculate, when we add our personal opinions, then those penalties become punitive and unfair and unfair to the officers,” Snelling said at the meeting. “What we’re seeing are egregious penalties for extremely minor infractions. Now, oftentimes when I go through these reports, I agree that the infraction should have been sustained, but a 30-day (or) 90-day suspension is egregious.”
Earlier this month, a former supervisor at COPA filed a whistleblower lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court that alleges he faced retaliation after raising those same concerns internally.
John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the union representing rank-and-file officers, detectives and retirees, said morale among CPD officers has improved during Snelling’s tenure.
“I’m pretty confident in stating that I think that the membership feels that the top person in this department, for the most part, has their back. As long as they’re doing police work and doing it properly then I think he’s there to back that up,” Catanzara said. “All that (COPA whistleblower) lawsuit did was confirm what Snelling said, and all Snelling did was confirm what we’ve been yelling about for years.”
While sometimes critical of COPA, Snelling believes CPD needs an outside oversight agency.
“I do believe that there has to be some level of oversight,” Snelling said. “Even if you do everything right, without another body to agree with that or even argue with you on the decision that you’ve made, the public is not going to feel 100% comfortable that the police department is stepping up and doing exactly what’s supposed to be done.”
The city’s contract with the FOP bars a superintendent from unilaterally firing an officer. If he could pluck an officer from the department, Snelling said that would “resolve a lot of issues.” But even with the current police discipline apparatus in place, Snelling has shown a willingness to seek harsher punishment for at least one officer.
Last October, the Chicago Police Board voted to clear Officer James Hunt of wrongdoing in an administrative case that stemmed from a chaotic arrest in River North during the unrest of summer 2020. In December, a still-pending lawsuit was filed on Snelling’s behalf in Cook County Circuit Court that seeks to have Hunt fired.
While the most serious police discipline cases are on hold, CPD adjudicates, internally, thousands of less severe incidents of wrongdoing every year with the Bureau of Internal Affairs and Summary Punishment Action Requests — SPARs — issued by mid-level CPD supervisors. SPARs can range from a noted violation or reprimand to a multiday suspension.
Data obtained by the Tribune through the Freedom of Information Act shows that, through late July, CPD supervisors had issued nearly 2,900 SPARs since the start of the year. Records show supervisors issued 3,704 SPARs in all of 2023.
So far this year, more than 850 SPARs have been issued to CPD officers who failed to appear in court, resulting in 82 suspensions, data shows. Last year, court appearance violations totaled 613.
Meanwhile, more than 400 SPARs have been issued this year related to officers failing to timely activate their bodyworn cameras — a sticking point highlighted by the consent decree independent monitoring team.
“During a June (2022) meeting with the CPD, the (consent decree independent monitoring team) expressed concerns about the ability to review use-of-force incidents when no body-worn camera footage was available 12% of the time, according to the tactical review division’s 2022 year-end Report,” the monitoring team previously wrote in a federal court filing.
CPD’s progress in adhering to the federal consent decree — a set of sweeping reforms that were borne out of the fatal 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald by former CPD Officer Jason Van Dyke — has been slow. In the five years since the consent decree was codified, CPD has reached full compliance with 8% of the roughly 800 paragraphs of reform obligations.
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