Executive Summary
Seven years ago, in March 2019, the City of Chicago entered into a Consent Decree with the State of Illinois. This legal agreement aimed to address decades of harmful practices and rampant police misconduct within the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Since the implementation of the Consent Decree, the City has made measurable progress including the adoption of new policies, expanded officer training, and the development of data, police accountability, and community engagement systems. However, this report finds that there is a significant gap between the City’s documented compliance with the Consent Decree and the lived experience of Chicagoans most impacted by policing. Despite years of reform efforts, Black and Latiné Chicagoans continue to report deep mistrust of law enforcement, ongoing harmful police interactions, and skepticism that reforms will lead to lasting change. While the current compliance framework effectively measures whether CPD has adopted policies, completed training, and implemented required systems, it has not consistently required evidence that these reforms are reducing racial disparities, strengthening accountability, rebuilding trust, or meaningfully improving policing outcomes in practice. This raises critical questions about whether the Consent Decree, as it currently operates, is on track to remedy the harm it was created to address.
