Committee on Public Safety
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago, through its corporate authorities, is committed to its duty of ensuring that the Chicago Police Department (CPD) remains a department that is committed to serving the residents of the City in a fair and racially unbiased manner; and
WHEREAS, further, the City of Chicago has a continuing duty to maintain a police department whose mission, in part, is to strive to attain the highest degree of ethical behavior and professional conduct at all times; and
WHEREAS, it was reported on November 5, 2022, by the National Public Radio (NPR), a not-for-profit organization, that leaked reports regarding a far-right organization, the Oath Keepers, shows active police officers, from New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago on the Oath Keepers' membership roster, with Chicago showing the greatest representation; and
WHEREAS, it is generally accepted that the Oath Keepers organization is a far-right anti-government organization, whose actions and practices goes against the overall mission and vision of the city of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department. Since the group was founded in 2009, its members have been involved in a number of violent confrontations with government actors throughout the country dating back to the group's inception; and t>
WHEREAS, it was also reported by NPR that as many as 13 active members ofthe Chicago Police Department were identified as likely matches on the Oath Keepers membership roster; and
WHEREAS, on January 13, 2023, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued its Quarterly Report for the Fourth Quarter, 2022, in which the OIG reviewed an investigation conducted by the Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) involving a Department member alleged to have been a member of the Oath Keepers. The OIG found that BIA's analysis failed to address the applicability of CPD's Rules and Regulations and did not answer the question of whether the CPD member's membership in the Oath Keepers itself constitutes a violation of CPD policy and further recommended BIA reopen the investigation; and
WHEREAS, it is in the best interest of the resident of the city of Chicago, that CPD provides clarity as to whether a CPD member's membership in the Oath Keepers organization constitutes a violation of CPD policies and whether such membership could have negative impact on public safety and a negative public perception of the Department; and
BE IT RESOLVED, that Chicago Superintendent David Brown, BIA Chief Yolanda Talley, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, and Deputy Inspector General - Public Safety Tobara Richardson, are hereby invited to appear before the Committee on Public Safety to provide testimony at a hearing on Chicago Police Department member's membership to the Oath Keeper's organization.
