Sessions To Deliver Speech To Chicago Crime Commission

CHICAGO — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is scheduled to deliver a speech in Chicago on Friday, a week after the Trump administration said it would reject the city's police reform plan. In an advisory sent Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said Sessions will address the Chicago Crime Commission, a group that advocates for more effective crime-fighting laws. The advisory didn't specify what Sessions will speak about in his speech.

The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in federal court opposing the city's police reform plan, which was hammered out by the city and Illinois' attorney general. The plan, which is still subject to approval by a federal judge in Chicago, would overhaul the Chicago Police Department under court supervision, and ramp up rules on the use of force by officers. One provision would require officers to file paperwork each time they point their guns, even if they don't fire.

In a statement filed Friday, Sessions said the proposed plan would decrease officers' flexibility.

"There is a misperception that police are the problem and that their failures, their lack of training, and their abuses create crime," Sessions said in his statement. "But the truth is the police are the solution to crime, and criminals are the problem."

Sessions's comments came on the heels of President Donald Trump's speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in Orlando Oct. 8, in which he said he told Sessions to "help straighten out the terrible shooting wave" in the city.

Earlier this month, however, the Chicago Police Department said there have been 102 fewer homicides and nearly 500 fewer shooting victims in the city this year, compared to the first nine months of 2017.

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