Lynch: DoJ Has Found the Chicago PD ‘Engages in a Pattern of Abuse of Excessive Force’ Violating the 4th Amendment

EXCCERPT:

LYNCH: "Now, in December of 2015, as part of that work, I announced that the Department of Justice, after careful review and extensive consultation with state and local officials and community leaders, was opening an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department had engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal statutory law. And for the past 13 months, our investigators have worked tirelessly to obtain a full and an accurate and an impartial picture of policing in Chicago. They have conducted hundreds of interviews with citizens, with officials, with officers. They have reviewed thousands of pages of documents, they have observed Chicago Police Department officers on the job. And on the basis of this exhaustive review, the Department of Justice has concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that the Chicago Police Department engages in a pattern or practice of abuse of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Our investigation found that this pattern of practice is in no small part the result of severely deficient training procedures and accountability systems.”