Shaping Police Reform Together
Hearing Community VoicesBuilding meaningful police reform in Chicago requires more than oversight—it requires partnership. The Independent Monitoring Team’s work is grounded in ongoing, two-way engagement with the people who live, work, and organize in communities across the city. We are committed to listening, learning, and ensuring that community voices directly inform how progress is measured and understood. Members of the community are invited to submit feedback and ask questions, and attend our Independent Monitoring Team community meetings – both in person and online. We review all community comments that we receive throughout the monitoring process.
Explore Our Work Across Chicago.
We regularly host and attend community engagement sessions, district council meetings, and public forums to hear directly from residents about their experiences, concerns, and priorities. These conversations are a vital part of our role as the Independent Monitoring Team, helping ensure that the implementation of the Consent Decree reflects the needs and realities of Chicago’s diverse communities.
To make our work more transparent and accessible, we’ve created an interactive map that highlights where we’ve engaged across Chicago. This tool allows you to explore the neighborhoods where community meetings, listening sessions, and other outreach efforts have taken place. Click on any location below to learn about past events. We hope it provides a clearer picture of our presence throughout the city and helps identify opportunities for future engagement.
We also recognize that strong partnerships are essential to meaningful engagement. Below, you’ll find a display of the many community-based organizations, advocacy groups, and local leaders we’ve worked alongside. These partners play a critical role in connecting us with residents, elevating community perspectives, and strengthening accountability.
Your voice matters in this process. Whether you attend a meeting, share feedback, or connect with us through a community partner, your input helps shape the path forward for policing in Chicago.
FAQs
Below are some commonly asked questions on Community Engagement and the Consent Decree.
You can reach out to us via email – contact@cpdmonitoringteam.com
You can also contact individual members of our Community Engagements Team:
Joe Hoereth: joe.hoereth@cpdmonitoringteam.com
Norma Ramos: neramos@uic.edu
Learn more on our Contact Us page. You can also use the Feedback Form on this website to send us your input or leave us general comments.
The Community Engagement Team works hard to connect with neighborhoods, community groups, religious organizations, advocates, and residents across the city. The Community Engagement Team encourages community members to participate in meetings and to promote these sessions through their networks. If your neighborhood or community group would like to invite a Community Engagement Team member to your meeting(s), please email us at contact@cpdmonitoringteam.com or fill out our feedback form.
Community members may provide input on CPD policy. When the CPD modifies or creates applicable policies, it will post them on their website for community members to provide input here.
Community members may also attend any of the public meetings listed on our website – including public hearings before Judge Pallmeyer, complete a feedback form on our website, or reach out to members of our Community Engagement Team directly. You can learn more about previous public hearings here and upcoming public hearings here.
Public Hearings are open meetings with the Court where community members can hear updates on police reform and share their perspectives directly. During these sessions, the Chicago Police Department provides information on its progress on a range of topics, and residents have the opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns, and offer feedback. Community members also have an opportunity to hear from the Independent Monitoring Team, the Illinois Attorney General, and the Coalition. These hearings are an important part of ensuring transparency, accountability, and that community voices remain central to the reform process.
How to participate: Attend an upcoming hearing virtually, and sign up to speak or submit your comments in advance when Public Comments are available.
Paragraphs 645-647 of the Consent Decree require the Independent Monitoring Team to “conduct reliable, representative, and comprehensive surveys of a broad cross section of members of the Chicago community regarding CPD” every two years.
The surveys, conducted in partnership with UIC’s Institute for Public and Civic Engagement, assess “perceptions of, and satisfaction with, CPD. The surveys will examine perceptions of CPD’s overall police services, trustworthiness, community engagement, effectiveness, responsiveness, handling of misconduct complaints and investigations, and interactions with members of the Chicago community.”
The Consent Decree recognizes many of Chicago’s community groups in paragraph 669, which refers to “a broad-based community coalition (“Coalition”) committed to monitoring, enforcing, and educating the community about this Agreement”:
The Parties have entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (“MOA”) with certain community organizations that have established a broad-based community coalition (“Coalition”) committed to monitoring, enforcing, and educating the community about this Agreement. No less frequently than quarterly, the Monitor will participate in meetings with the Coalition, as provided in Paragraph 9 of the MOA.
The MOA defines Coalition membership as follows: “the Plaintiffs in Campbell v. City of Chicago, N.D. Ill. Case No. 17-cv-4467 (the “Campbell Plaintiffs”),1 and the Plaintiffs in Communities United v. City of Chicago, N.D. Ill. Case No. 17-cv-7151, (the “Communities United Plaintiffs”).”
