Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday finally followed through on his promise to propose police raid reforms — without a ban on no-knock warrants — that nevertheless appears to satisfy social worker Anjanette Young.
Young was handcuffed and forced to stand naked while a team of police officers mistakenly raided her home in February 2019.
Twenty-seven months ago, four years to the day after the botched raid that changed her life, Young endorsed Johnson in hopes he would deny then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot a second term.
Although Young had already received a $2.9 million settlement from the city, Lightfoot and her City Council allies had blocked the so-called Anjanette Young Ordinance, which goes far beyond the police raid reforms imposed by Lightfoot and her embattled Police Supt. David Brown.
Johnson embraced those same, more sweeping reforms, which notably included bans on no-knock warrants and officers pointing guns at children.
But the mayor’s ordinance, introduced at Wednesday’s Council meeting, allows officers to carry out a raid without knocking, with a judge’s approval, if there’s a threat of violence or “imminent danger.”
Still, 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden, who led the charge for the revised ordinance, said she and Young are both satisfied.
That’s because the mayor’s ordinance includes a key provision championed by Young and Hadden: requiring Chicago police officers to give homeowners 30 seconds before barging in.
“It’s very rare for them to use a no-knock warrant. A no-knock is not what happened with Ms. Young. … Most of the issues we’ve seen is with our knock-and-announce warrants, which is why we decided to focus the reforms on knock-and-announce warrants,” Hadden said Wednesday.
Young was at the mayor’s side during a news conference that followed Wednesday’s City Council meeting. It was proof positive that she was satisfied with the reforms he introduced.
The mayor was asked why the ordinance he introduced did not include the ban on no-knock warrants that he promised Young on the day she endorsed him.
“What we are ultimately solving for is to make sure that what happened to Ms. Anjanette Young never happens again,” Johnson said. “What we have found is that the vast majority of these incidents do not necessarily speak to the initial language that we had initially put forward.”
Calling Young and Hadden “strong champions” for police raid reforms, the mayor said, “We’re gonna continue to work collectively to make sure we pass something that works for everyone.”
Most of the reforms in her original ordinance have been adopted as part of the federal consent decree or incorporated in police training, Hadden said.
Young’s attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In February, on the six-year anniversary of the wrongful raid of her apartment, Young said she didn’t blame Johnson that the city still hadn’t yet “gotten it right.”
“Six years since I stood before officers — crying, pleading, afraid — only to be ignored,” Young said then at a news conference outside City Hall. “And yet I stand here again, afraid and demanding for justice, accountability, still demanding that those in power would keep their promise.”
The police department started reforming its search warrant policy in the wake of the botched raid of Young’s home, although the process has been slow-moving and acrimonious.
The department touts a series of “major changes” to the policy, including requirements that a deputy chief approve a search of a home; officers must record raids on their body cameras; and wrongful searches and other misconduct must be reported and investigated.
The reforms also place stricter limits on so-called no-knock warrants, which can now only be carried out by SWAT officers with approval from a bureau chief and are only allowed when there’s a safety risk. The number of search warrants dropped about 25% from 2019 to 2024, from 2,420 to 1,791.
Johnson’s proposal directs the police department to establish an additional policy to require cops executing search warrants “to exercise caution” and use tactics “to protect and respect the rights of all individuals who are involved.”
“Such policy shall address the potential presence of individuals aged 16 or younger, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and other vulnerable persons,” it states. “Such policy shall also address pointing firearms at individuals, including individuals aged 16 or younger, during the service and execution of a search warrant.”
Under the proposal, officers executing warrants would have to “avoid intentionally pointing firearms at children unless reasonable under the totality of circumstances.”
The changes fall short of what Johnson promised on the day he claimed Young’s endorsement. He said then that the humiliation Young suffered was “unconscionable,” and that Lightfoot was “complicit in blocking accountability and standing in the way of justice being served.
“It grieves me that this administration refuses to protect Black women,” Johnson said at the time.
“As mayor of the city of Chicago, I will protect Black women. We’re gonna pass the Anjanette Young Ordinance. We’re gonna ensure that the type of brutality and the errors of this police department, that we put an end to that.”
Young agreed that Johnson “supports the things that matter to me. … He is committed to making sure that the trauma that I endured … never happens to another person.”
Shortly before Johnson took office, Alexandra Block, senior supervising attorney for the ACLU of Illinois, urged the incoming mayor to “swiftly commit to a search warrant policy that bans no-knock warrants and nighttime raids, necessary changes embraced by other cities and states.”
Block said there was “broad public support for these changes to CPD’s search warrant policy in the wake of the dehumanizing, wrong raid on Anjanette Young and numerous raids of other Black and Brown residents, including children, in Chicago.”
“CPD’s 2023 policy does not go far enough to prevent violent and degrading raids,” Block wrote. “The mayor can order CPD to adopt a new search warrant policy that meaningfully considers whether the potential gains from executing a warrant are outweighed by the risks, especially risks to children, people with disabilities, and people with limited English proficiency.
“Such a new policy also should hold officers and supervisors accountable for wrong raids, creating a system that curbs excessive and racist behavior.”
Lightfoot had argued her own search warrant reforms went far enough and that Chicago Police Department policy cannot be dictated by the Council.
The police department’s now-former chief of patrol, Brian McDermott, had argued a 30-second wait “may seem pretty reasonable,” but could “seem like an eternity” to a criminal or an officer.
McDermott was equally dead set against what he called a “cookie-cutter policy” prohibiting officers from pointing guns at children.
“Let’s just say we’re serving a warrant for weapons and there’s a child sitting there who’s not listening to commands of an officer. He may be reaching for something. Let’s just say, God forbid, it be a handgun, and we’re not allowed to point a weapon at that child,” McDermott said.
Three years ago, a Council committee rejected the more sweeping search warrant reforms.
Before the 10-4 vote, Young pleaded with alderpersons to approve the ordinance to prevent other Chicago families from experiencing what she did.
Young recalled she asked the sergeant on the scene that night to show her the search warrant, which would explain what police officers were looking for and why they entered her home. The sergeant refused and stood on the other side of the room while holding the search warrant in his hand, she said.
“Imagine in that moment that, maybe, I was someone that you cared about. Imagine it was your mother who was standing there. None of us would have wanted our mother to have that type of experience. Well, guess what? I’m someone’s mother. … See me as your mother, someone who deserves dignity and respect, regardless of the situation,” Young said.
“I did not lose my physical life that night, but I lost a lot of my life that night. My life will never be the same.”