Lori Lightfoot the Next Top Cop?

Lori Lightfoot | Mayer Brown

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed claims sources tell her Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, may be under consideration for the Chicago Police Superintendent position.

According to Sneed’s “top cop source”:

“Lightfoot is savvy, a skilled lawyer, an African-American, a former assistant U.S. attorney who could work with the feds, and there is no regulation Chicago’s police superintendent has to be a cop.”

Lightfoot was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to take over the police board last year. She also makes up a three-person task force tasked by the mayor to review police misconduct cases.

According to Sneed, Lightfoot’s name is being touted as someone who could help the mayor reorganize the police department in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald video, which shows the unarmed black teen being shot 16 times by a white cop, Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke is facing murder charges in the teen’s shooting.

Lightfoot has expressed that she’d like a new superintendent to be in place before the end of February, after the forced resignation of former superintendent Garry McCarthy last December.

Interim Supt. John Escalante’s name is also being floated to run day-to-day operations while Lightfoot reorganizes the department, Sneed says.

According to the city’s municipal code, the Chicago police superintendent does not need to be a law enforcement officer.

A certain Chicago alderman of a police-and-firefighter-heavy ward on the South Side recently told Patch that he thinks a superintendent who has risen from the police ranks would be an appropriate choice, garnering trust and respect from the rank and file.

The police board is interviewing applicants for the top cop position, before selecting three finalists to send to the mayor for consideration.

Read Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed’s report.