Not long after Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson on Wednesday named an interim leader of the Chicago Police Department, he was already discussing the kind of person he will choose to run it permanently as superintendent.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, right, with Fred Waller, former chief of patrol for the Chicago Police Department, on May 3, 2023. Waller was named as the department’s interim superintendent.
Johnson will take office on the 5th floor of City Hall with the department in transition and high crime on the minds of many residents. He was not backed by the city’s largest police union, which endorsed his opponent Paul Vallas, who ran on a get-tough platform. Johnson also touted that Waller shares his vision for a “safer and stronger Chicago” as well as for “re-imagining public safety.”“If there’s one thing that could bring me out of retirement, it was this opportunity to leave and return to the place that I’ve given so much of my life to,” Waller said. “I understand firsthand the sacrifices that officers make every day to keep our city safe, and I’m committed to providing the resources, the direction and the training they need.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability — the body tasked with submitting three finalists for the superintendent job to Johnson by mid-July — has so far hosted three forums where members of the public outlined for commissioners what they want to see in the next permanent CPD superintendent. Speakers at those gatherings have overwhelmingly supported the idea of a CPD veteran leading the department.
Waller addressed those comments to reporters Wednesday, saying he took responsibility but his words were also “taken out of context.”
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