Mayor Rahm Emanuel to Give Chicago PD Tasers in 2016

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel rolled out changes in police training and procedures to make tense situations “less confrontational and more conversational”, including arming officers with Tasers.

Emanuel said Wednesday the city will double the number of Tasers available, to 1,400.

On the night he was killed, officers could be heard asking for a Taser before Jason Van Dyke opened fire, shooting McDonald 16 times.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says the latest fatal shootings by Chicago police raise questions about why officers don’t have more options besides using lethal force.

New training and tactics for the Chicago Police Department, which is struggling to regain public support after a series of police shootings.

This weekend, Chicago officers shot and killed 19-year-old Quintonio Legrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones, a mother of five and a bystander. Bettie Jones, a 55-year-old neighbor of Legrier, was accidentally shot on Saturday.

According to ABC 7, other changes include encouraging officers to call backup before heading into unsafe situations and extending the minimum amount of time an officer has to spend on desk duty following a shooting from 72 hours to 30 days.

The Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney has requested assistance from the FBI in investigating the police-involved shooting that left a 55-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man dead last week. John Escalante and new Independent Police Review Authority head Sharon Fairley would be assigned to “review the crisis-response strategies” in the Department. The Chicago Police Department, already the subject of a federal civil rights investigation over its use of deadly force and other issues, has admitted the woman’s death was an accident.

Neslund’s letter accuses detectives of repeatedly attempting to get the witness to change her statement because, they said, her story “did not match the video”. Garry McCarthy touted police training on the use of force and confronting violent offenders.

The chief of the union representing Chicago’s rank-and-file police officers said the de-escalation policy outlined on Wednesday was not a major change from current department policy. But the calls for his resignation had reached such a pitch over the weekend that he cut short his trip and returned to Chicago on December 29th so that “he can continue the ongoing work of restoring accountability and trust in the Chicago Police Department”, in the words of Kelley Quinn, the mayor’s spokeswoman.

Laquan McDonald was fatally shot by Chicago cops in October 2014.

Van Dyke has since been charged with first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

With advancing technology, we as people have more evidence than ever that injustice happens on a daily basis involving the police.

Emanuel told reporters Wednesday that just because officers are trained to use lethal force does not mean they should use it indiscriminately.