Hundreds of additional police officers from across Illinois will be in Chicago later this month to assist the Chicago Police Department during the four-day Democratic National Convention. But with less than three weeks until the rally, it remains unclear which police departments will send personnel to Chicago or how many officers they will provide.
Police Commissioner Larry Snelling said the city will have up to 500 additional officers to police the city’s “infrastructure” during the DNC. And while operations around the United Center and McCormick Place will undoubtedly require significant manpower, the commissioner pledged not to overstretch the police resources of the CPD’s 22 patrol districts.
“Our assessment is that we have a very good complement of officers who will be there,” Snelling told reporters recently. “They are highly trained and they will respond in a professional manner. And we will make sure that working with our partners … we will make any necessary adjustments as the situation evolves.”
The CPD, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Tribune, said this week that the final list of “mutual aid agents” had not yet been established.
In an emailed statement, CPD Director of Public Affairs Don Terry said the majority of the additional officers will be from Illinois.
“The Chicago Police Department is finalizing mutual aid agreements for the upcoming Democratic National Convention with state agencies through the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS),” the statement read. “There will also be a contingent of officers from Milwaukee. The mutual aid officers will focus on securing infrastructure and will not be assigned to patrol duties.”
Those officers, including those in Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention was held last month, will undergo 12 hours of training and are expected to have minimal contact with the public while in Chicago.
The addition of outside police resources to Milwaukee has not been without controversy.
During the Republican National Convention, an Ohio police officer shot and killed a person outside the convention’s security perimeter. Authorities said the shooting appeared to have occurred to prevent a stabbing on the street and was not related to the Republican National Convention’s activities.
About 100 CPD officers were also in Milwaukee to assist during the convention.
Larry Evans, executive director of ILEAS, largely echoed Snelling this week, saying that mutual aid officers should have little to no contact with Chicagoans. Evans said ILEAS — a group founded by police chiefs across the state after 9/11 to help police departments in need and funded by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security — plans to send about 300 officers to Chicago for the DNC.
“The missions, while not specific, are of all types, which will keep them, basically, out of public view and out of any interaction with the general public,” Evans said.
The mutual aid officers will remain in full uniform during the DNC, and they are expected to arrive in Chicago a few days before the convention begins on Aug. 19 to undergo 12 hours of mission-related training, as well as briefings on CPD policies and expectations, Evans said.
Like Snelling, Evans also stressed that preparations for the DNC will remain fluid until the convention begins, and that security procedures will be constantly evaluated and modified as needed.
Officers from two local law enforcement agencies, the Illinois State Police and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, will not be counted among the mutual aid officers, Evans said.
Chuck Wexler, longtime director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based policing think tank, told the Tribune that mutual aid officers can play a crucial role in securing large-scale events by allowing local police departments to more precisely focus their resources.
“There are security issues, people’s right to protest, they want to allow that, and then there are potential terrorism issues,” Wexler said. “That’s what modern convention protection looks like today.”
“The city of Chicago cannot take its police officers out of its neighborhoods,” Wexler added. “It has to find a balance between protecting the convention and protecting its neighborhoods.”
For months, Snelling has emphasized the training courses CPD officers take before the four-day convention, exercises that focus on crowd control and First and Fourth Amendment policies.
The city’s inspector general’s office released a report in late May highlighting concerns about the CPD’s preparedness for expected crowds of protesters.
While the CPD has made progress since the summer of 2020 — when Chicago and other cities were ravaged by violence and looting following the killing of George Floyd — the OIG report said the department’s training and policies for managing crowds “are inadequate and may increase the risk of violating the constitutional rights of lawful protesters.”
