Actualizing Reform at the Chicago Police Department

Several high-profile incidents, including the videotaped shooting death of Laquan McDonald, have increased public scrutiny of the Chicago Police Department's use of force, highlighted CPD's relationship with the communities it serves, and led to investigations by the Police Accountability Task Force and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Responding to the recommendations that came out of these investigations, CPD released its "Next Steps for Reform" in March of this year. This public commitment includes more than 30 initiatives across five focus areas: Community Policing, Training, Supervision, Use of Force, and Accountability.

To help implement the steps outlined in its commitment, CPD reached out to Civic Consulting Alliance. "CPD has a lot of experience in law enforcement, but very little in project management," said Superintendent Eddie Johnson. "We knew we needed Civic Consulting's help."

Given the magnitude of the request, CCA turned to several partners to support this work.

Accenture responded with project planning and management help. "This is what we do every day for our clients in our Health and Public Service practice, so it made sense for us to contribute," said Accenture Managing Director Chris Bradley.

West Monroe Partners (WMP) volunteered to handle the change management workstream. "For changes of this magnitude, it is important that leadership be aligned and understand their role in helping make it happen," said Michael Hughes, senior director at WMP. "We were excited to help CPD implement reforms in a positive way."

A.T. Kearney helped to design a more frequent in-service training program for CPD, one of the major recommendations in the DOJ report. "Creating a strong, well-resourced, and effective training program is critical to the CPD's ability to continue to effectively serve the community," said A.T. Kearney partner Kish Khemani.

In just 12 weeks, the multi-partner team built out a Project Management Office at CPD, planned and organized 32 individual projects, delivered a change management strategy, and formulated an in-service training program recommendation.

CPD faces a long road ahead. But as a result of the work of some of Chicago's most committed corporate citizens and the spirit of public-private collaboration that makes what CCA does possible, CPD has taken a big step down that road.

For more information on the project, contact Eric Patton.