U.S. Department of Justice will investigate Chicago Police Department

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice will investigate the Chicago Police Department. The announcement follows many calls from legislators and presidential candidates for the DOJ to step forward and scrutinize the department in the wake of the release of video showing a white police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald numerous times.

That video, which showed the murder of McDonald by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in October 2014, had been withheld from the public by Chicago authorities for more than a year. The tape was released two weeks ago, on the same day that Van Dyke was (finally) charged with murder by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. The Justice Department investigation will not cover Alvarez’ office.

The investigation will probe if Chicago’s police have engaged in a pattern and practice of systematically violating constitutional rights, and if there any racial or ethnic disparities involved. It will not result in criminal charges against individuals, but can result in a consent decree between a department and the Justice Department. The decree would basically oversee the department to ensure that there are new practices and accountability measures in place. Los Angeles, Oakland, Philadelphia, and Cleveland are just a few of the cities that have had consent decrees put in place in the last few years.