Report: CPD Supervisor Made Officers Chauffeur, Babysit His Child
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago police supervisor took officers away from official police work - so they could chauffeur and babysit his child.
Those are the findings from Chicago's Office of Inspector General. The report said the officers at the 25th District spent time on childcare at the expense of doing official police work.
In one case, an officer had to hang up on a domestic violence call in order to care for his supervisor's child.
The report details that every Wednesday from at least September of 2017 to July of 2018, the supervisor sent one, to sometimes three officers, on a half-hour trip to pick up his child from school.
Then for two to three hours, officers would watch the child at the police station.
The officers who kept an eye on the child described their interactions as "child care or babysitting," taking their attention away from serving the community.
Officers were distracted from their jobs, and the supervisor's orders lowered station morale. That supervisor, the OIG said, then tried to explain away his actions with a made up story.
"Perhaps most troubling, the supervisor disingenuously and implausibly claimed...the officers were unknowingly participating in a community policing study," the report stated.
The report said there is no evidence of any such study, saying that explanation "was a baseless, post hoc attempt to justify conduct that the supervisor knew or should have known was wrong." And it "raised serious questions about the supervisor's judgement and ability to serve in a supervisory position."
The OIG recommended disciplinary action, including firing the supervisor. But CPD suspended him for one week, saying his actions did not violate police rules.
The Chicago Police Department would not comment on the report. Neither would the police union.
