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The police are under fire on still another front. A coalition of mostly black grass-roots organizations, led by Democratic Congressman Ralph Metcalfe, has been waging an all-out campaign to end what it considers excessive police brutality. Their complaints were reinforced by a report issued by the Chicago Law Enforcement Study Group that showed Chicago police were involved in fatal shootings at a rate that is three times higher than in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit. Also, during a day-long hearing, a dozen witnesses, eleven blacks and one white, testified. Some of them told of their traumatic experiences; one man testified that he lost an eye after being hit by a police baton. The officer had been exonerated by the police internal affairs department.
Metcalfe and his followers have demanded that Conlisk disband the elite police task force unit, which they blame for much of the police brutality in black and Latin American neighborhoods. The group also called for an increase in the number of blacks in policymaking positions, the recruitment of more blacks and the across-the-board upgrading of blacks already on the force. To increase citizen control over police activities, the group has demanded that citizens' review boards be created for each of the city's 21 police districts.
Apparently hoping to renew some of the department's lost lustre, Marlin Johnson, a veteran of 29 years of law enforcement and a former FBI agent in charge of the Chicago office, was elected the new head of the city's police board. The five-member board will oversee the department's rules and regulations, pass on the annual police budget and review serious disciplinary infractions. Conlisk has already given a go-ahead to investigators from the Chicago Human Relations Commission and the Chicago Bar Association, who are now searching through police files for evidence that could support the brutality complaints.