Joliet Police Has Long Pattern Of Excessive Force: AG's Office
JOLIET — The Illinois Attorney General's Office has finished its more than three year long investigation of the Joliet Police Department and found that "We find reasonable cause to believe that JPD engages in a pattern or practice of unreasonable force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Illinois law."
Joliet Patch obtained a portion of the several hundred page finding results on Wednesday and part of the report reads: "Our findings are not limited to any one type of force, tactic, or context. However, over the course of our investigation, we observed several trends including:
- a failure to de-escalate and a tendency to unnecessarily escalate situations
- unlawful use of retaliatory force
- unlawful use of tasers, head strikes, and other bodily force
- concerns about gun pointing practices
- excessive force against teenagers and people with behavioral health disabilities
- a failure to intervene when unreasonable force is being used by another officer
- Factors that contribute to this pattern include:
Supervisory deficiencies at every level of JPD's review of force deficiencies in JPD's use of force policies and training a department culture that overlooks policy violations and seeks to justify all force used Officers often confront dangerous situations that put their own safety and the safety of others at risk. They face split-second decisions and are required to react quickly to fast-changing situations. Inevitably, mistakes and misconduct will occur and when they do, meaningful supervision, support, and accountability are vital. JPD has consistently failed on these fronts.
Although our office identified numerous unreasonable uses of force between 2017 and 2022, our review of JPD's supervisory and force panel review documents, as well as JPD's Internal Affairs files, revealed that these accountability entities rarely recognized unreasonable use of force. JPD's repeated failure to identify and address unreasonable force is not an aberration—it is a hallmark of its supervisory culture. The Department's inability to police itself sends the message from the top down that nearly any force can be justified and that there are no consequences for using unreasonable force.
On Thursday, the following press release was issued by the spokeswoman for Attorney General Kwame Raoul:
Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy today issued a joint statement affirming their shared commitment to ensuring constitutional policing in Joliet after Raoul's office released the findings of its
"Joliet residents deserve lawful and constitutional policing that is fair to all people, regardless of race or gender. We are committed to continuing the collaborative work that began when the prior Joliet city leadership, led by former Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, invited the Attorney General's office to open an investigation, in response to concerns raised by the public, following the tragic death of Eric Lurry after his arrest in 2020 by JPD officers.
"Throughout the three years of this investigation, the city of Joliet and the Joliet Police Department have fully cooperated with this investigation. A team comprised of attorneys and staff in the Public Interest Division of the Attorney General's office, in consultation with law enforcement experts, reviewed thousands of pages of documents provided by the department. In addition, the team carried out dozens of interviews with officers, supervisors, command staff, union representatives, members of the community and other professionals who interact with members of the department. The investigative team also made on-site visits, participated in ride-alongs, observed trainings, and reviewed hundreds of hours of squad car and body camera video.
"That work has culminated in a report; however, today's report is not the conclusion. Rather, we will collaboratively continue, and expand the meaningful changes that have already been enacted since the election of Mayor D'Arcy. Mayor D'Arcy and the city of Joliet in conjunction with the Attorney General's office are committed to an ongoing collaboration to enact additional changes and provide the gold standard of police services for its citizens."
