Chicago Mayor To Announce Task Force For Police Accountability, Officer Jason Van Dyke Released On Bail

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to announce Tuesday the formation of a task force for police accountability, his office said, according to reports. The move comes after protesters of a 2014 fatal shooting of a black teen called for Emanuel’s resignation and the removal of city police chief Garry McCarthy.

The Task Force on Police Accountability will evaluate the courses of action that hold the city police officers accountable, along with oversight and training for the Chicago Police Department. Its recommendations will be submitted to the mayor and City Council by March 31, 2016.

“Actively engaging a range of community members--including victims’ rights representatives, law enforcement organizations, youth, religious and elected leaders--will be critically important to ensure the recommendations are based on input from all parts of the city,” the mayor’s office said, in a press statement, according to NBC News.

People took to the streets in Chicago after the city released a dashboard camera video last Tuesday showing the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer, in October 2014. Van Dyke was subsequently charged with first degree murder of McDonald and jailed on a bond of $1.5 million, of which the officer was required to post 10 percent for bail. On Monday, Van Dyke was released after posting the required bond, according to ABC news.

Also on Monday, Cornell Brooks, the president of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was briefly arrested along with nine other protesters. People have continued protesting over the past week, calling for action and condemning the amount of time police took to release the video of McDonald’s shooting. Over the weekend, thousands of people blocked Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on Black Friday to protest the fatal shooting.