The City Council moved Wednesday to ban cops with ties to extremist groups like the far-right Proud Boys or Oath Keepers from serving in the Chicago Police Department.
The ordinance from Ald. Matt Martin (47th) prohibits officers from engaging in “extremist activities,” defined in the measure as any attempt to overthrow the U.S. government through violence or “unconstitutional means.” The measure also bans police from actively participating in extremist groups, such as doing fundraising, recruiting or displaying tattoos to uplift extremist groups.
It passed 28-21.
Under the new ordinance, alleged extremist activities or ties to extremist groups will be investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an independent city watchdog, instead of the department’s internal investigatory unit.
In his appeal to colleagues, Martin said Chicago must defend against federal acts such as President Donald Trump’s Day 1 signing of roughly 1,500 pardons and commutations for those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin added that the ordinance protects against extremism beyond Trump’s presidency.
“These definitions [of extremism] are content-neutral, meaning that they give no weight whatsoever to someone’s political leanings,” Martin said.
Martin cited a 2024 report from city Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, which stated “the city’s handling of extremism in its police ranks has fallen short.”
At least a dozen Chicago police officials were previously investigated for their alleged ties to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, extremist groups whose members played a key role in the Jan. 6 riot.
The measure follows a joint investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, called “Extremism in the Ranks,” which documented troubling allegations against Chicago cops on a leaked roster of an anti-government group and the efforts to hold those officers accountable.
The ordinance passed after a heated debate in which some of the Council’s conservative and moderate members argued the ordinance will discourage Chicagoans from joining the police department because it singles out officers.
“Hell yeah, go after the white supremacists, hell yeah! But go after them in every department,” said Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former police officer, who claimed the ordinance “once again demonizes” cops. Council members who support the ordinance, he said, “want to destroy that department.”
Ald. Demon Yancy (5th), who calls himself a “cop kid” because his dad served in CPD, clapped back, saying it’s “way past ridiculous” to debate “whether racism exists and … whether it exists in the police department.”
“We talk about the role of police being the thin blue line. … When the ‘thin blue line’ includes bad guys, it makes it really hard to think about how we mend the relationship between police and community,” Yancy said.
An earlier version of the ordinance applied the ban on extremist activity to all city employees, but it was narrowed to avoid court challenges, Martin said.
Martin told colleagues when it comes to police officers, courts have offered “more leeway” to prohibit extremist activity “because of the unique role they play in public safety.”
The more narrow scope also eased concerns from progressive advocates that the law could be used to tamp down on constitutional political activism in the future.
“We are concerned that in this political climate, designations like ‘anti-government extremists’ can be applied broadly, sweeping up those working tirelessly to protect our neighbors and our democracy,” Loren Jones, with the policy nonprofit, Impact for Equity, said at a committee hearing last month.
But the fact that “this ordinance applies only to the Chicago Police Department” lessens that concern, she said.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro, who chairs the Council’s police and fire committee, moved to delay the ordinance’s passage and re-refer it to his committee, after expressing frustration that the measure had been heard only in the Council’s Workforce Development Committee.