Please Pretend Retiring Chicago Top Cop Isn't Under Investigation

CHICAGO — Out of respect, let’s play pretend. That seemed to be the big ask to a roomful of reporters at Thursday’s bizarre news conference announcing police Supt. Eddie Johnson’s retirement.

Johnson confirmed his plans to call it quits at the end of the year in a teary-eyed speech peppered with selective feel-good memories of his 30-year rise from beat cop to top cop. And when it was over, Johnson used his family to shield himself from questions about the cloud of misconduct hanging over his head. And Mayor Lori Lightfoot backed him up.

“We’re happy to take your questions, but let me say this: This is a day for celebration. It’s a day for remembrance,” Lightfoot said.

“And I’m mindful that the superintendent’s young son is here. … I would ask you out of respect for what this moment means not only for the superintendent but for the police department and for our city let’s limit your questions to on topic.”

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In other words, please don’t bring up that Johnson’s retirement comes a few weeks after he drove himself home in a police vehicle after having a “couple drinks” and passed out behind the wheel at a stop sign in Bridgeport.

The mayor told reporters there would be plenty of time later to talk about it ... some other time.

The incident journalists were asked not to mention happened on Oct. 17. Beat cops wearing body cameras found Johnson unconscious with vehicle still running at 34th and Aberdeen. He opened the window only a crack when they startled him awake. The supervisor at the scene didn’t have his body cam turned on when he talked to Johnson. Officers didn’t check on Johnson’s health or sobriety before letting him finish his late-night drive home, sources who watched the video told Patch.

Publicly, Johnson blamed his stop-sign nap on a medication mix up without mentioning that he had drinks with friends that night. Lightfoot outed that detail and transferred the internal affairs division investigation Johnson ordered up himself to Inspector General Joe Ferguson.

The police department denied Freedom of Information Act requests for police reports and body cam video captured by the beat cops who found him unresponsive behind the wheel citing the ongoing investigation, sources said.

Since then, there’s been nothing but silence — as in the Thin Blue Line code of silence in the police department that for generations has protected cops accused of misconduct from punishment.

There are tried-and-true methods for covering up police misconduct in Chicago that haven’t been reformed yet, and hinder the public’s ability to trust that investigations into alleged wrongdoing reveal truth and hold people accountable.

Don’t just take it from me. University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, who has studied Chicago police misconduct for nearly 20 years, put it this way: "The same underlying systems and conditions that allowed Jason Van Dyke to do what he did, allowed Jerry Finnegan and his crew to do what they did and allowed Jon Burge and his crew back then do what they did, still exist. And we still haven't fundamentally addressed the reflexive machinery of denial that operates every time an officer is accused of doing something wrong or using force," Futterman said.

"What's underlying here is you have the same system for covering up the big, small and everything in between. That's the problem. Did that same system potentially come to [Johnson's] aid? It may have.”

And for that, it was impossible to find comfort in Mayor Lightfoot’s assurance the reality we’re dealing with is that the pending investigation will take a “normal course.”

“It’s inappropriate for us to talk about anything about the investigation because he’s going to be a witness. I’m going to be a witness,” the mayor said. “I think we have to let the investigation run its course. We’re not going to talk about it. The inspector general, I’m sure, is expecting that we are not going to say anything that is going to have undue influence on it. It’s really not appropriate.”

That was the mayor’s response to my off-topic questions for Johnson: “Have you been interviewed by the inspector general? Have you been subpoenaed? Will you be interviewed before you leave?”

Johnson groaned at the podium when I pointed out he isn’t required to answer questions from the inspector general once he’s no longer a city employee.

Johnson might not want to hear it, but it's not a secret that retirements and resignations often are police misconduct investigation killers in Chicago. His ability to retire before having to answer questions from investigators is the kind of question reporters weren't supposed to ask about at the news conference where Johnson declared that after a long career his “integrity maintains intact.”

“The best leaders don’t bark orders or point fingers they lead by example,” Johnson said. “I hope the example that I’ve set inspires someone. Maybe another kid from the south side. Maybe inspire that kid to work hard and do the right thing and maybe even join the department.”

Touching as that might be, if Johnson’s last day comes without submitting to an inspector general's deposition he’s not setting a good example for rank-and-file cops, or future officers he hopes to inspire. His silence will speak volumes about the continued effectiveness of an age-old system that some cops have relied on to avoid accountability when they get caught making bad decisions.

In fairness to Johnson, it wouldn’t be all his fault if the investigation dragged on until he wasn't required to submit to an interview.

Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham offered a sensible solution.

“I certainly think if they [the inspector general’s office] want the interview, they call [Johnson] up tomorrow,” Graham said. “There’s nothing preventing them from doing that.”

Well, we might want to pretend that’s always true, too.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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