Police reform advocates are calling for greater transparency and accountability following a new labor agreement recently ratified with Chicago police. The City Council approved a contract extension with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 7 in mid-December—the result of a 47–7 vote without prior debate and where neither the City Council nor Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration disseminated exact contract details to the public beforehand.

The contract affords new protections to officers accused of misconduct, significantly changes how body cameras can be used, and ushers in some of the highest salary increases of any group of city employees starting in 2024. 

The council’s Workforce Development Committee decided against another provision that would have allowed officers facing termination or suspensions of a year or more to have their cases heard confidentially by an arbitrator as opposed to at a public police board hearing. But local activists, civil rights lawyers, and others working in police reform argue the public should have been able to review these and other provisions before they were voted on. 

Alexandra Block, director of the Criminal Legal System and Policing Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, said she was disappointed to see this lack of transparency from the city in the FOP contract extension approval process.

“Not only did members of the City Council not have adequate time to review the provisions, but organizations like the ACLU and a number of our partner organizations—and we work with a coalition on issues of police accountability—we were just not given enough time to review and analyze the contract,” Block said. “That’s just not the way a transparent, democratic process should work, especially not in Chicago, where we have such a long history of lack of police accountability, and we’ve been struggling for years to encourage more oversight over the police.”

With the contract newly approved, officers represented by the FOP will receive 5 percent raises in 2024 and 2025. The changes could cost the city between $188 million and $207 million over the next three and a half years, according to an analysis from the Better Government Association (BGA). It will be the largest package of raises for a union representing city employees in modern history, the BGA reported.

Additionally, officers facing suspensions of 30 days or fewer can now have expedited hearings through a new process called the “Peoples’ Court,” and provisions regarding the use of body cameras say the devices cannot be used where officers should have a reasonable expectation of privacy, like in locker rooms and restrooms. 

Officers also now have the option to review body camera footage before writing any report, something they’re also not required to note in the report itself. Most notably, the provision also disallows footage of post-incident conversations or conversations with supervisors in disciplinary proceedings. 

Block believes new provisions concerning the use of body cameras contradict state law and Chicago Police Department (CPD) policies and have the potential to confuse officers without further clarification from the city. The cameras are an essential tool in preventing collusion among officers after misconduct occurs, and such restrictions on their use only encourage an existing “code of silence,” she said.