Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling on Wednesday said he wants a power that Mayor Brandon Johnson doesn’t want to give him: authority to declare three-hour-long “snap curfews” anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes’ notice.
“What that curfew would be used for is deterrence. We would like to have something like that in advance when we know that there’s the possibility of a gathering that’s going to lead to violence in a particular area that has a history” of it, Snelling told the Sun-Times.
“This would give us plenty of time to put out notice to everyone involved that teenagers are going to converge on this area if we don’t stop it ahead of time and it could lead to violence.”
Last month, one of Johnson’s most powerful City Council allies used a parliamentary maneuver to delay consideration of a newly-revised snap curfew ordinance at the mayor’s behest.
At the time, the mayor shared Budget Chair Jason Ervin’s concerns about an 11th-hour change that gave Snelling alone the authority to declare snap curfews instead of having to clear that declaration with a top mayoral aide.
“To give unilateral authority to one entity — I don’t see that as an effective, democratic tool… That particular … version of the ordinance was incredibly shortsighted,” Johnson said May 21. “What we don’t want is a situation where all of the efforts that Supt. Snelling has put forth to renew and build trust within communities — that we don’t lose that.”
Downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) has vowed to try again at the next Council meeting June 18.
“Curfew is not criminal. But if…a large group gathers and they start engaging in criminal activity, we’re going to put an end to that. We’re going to stop it,” Snelling said. “If arrests need to be made, we will make arrests. We would like to avoid that if we could. But we’re not going to allow people to just take over our streets…It’s always helpful to have a tool that’s going to help you prevent things from happening.”
Another matter stuck in legislative limbo is a proposed $1.25 million settlement that would compensate the family of Dexter Reed, who was shot to death by Chicago police officers after Reed shot and wounded one of them during a traffic stop.
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) has condemned the settlement for the “dangerous” message it sends to Chicago Police Department officers, scores of whom live in his Far Southwest Side ward.
Snelling stopped short of urging the City Council to reject the $1.25 million settlement. But he urged alderpersons to “take a long look at…what initiated this thing.” Four officers fired 96 shots at Reed in 41 seconds, striking him 13 times after Reed fired first, striking one tactical officer in the hand.
“We have forgotten about the officer whose life was almost taken at that moment….A police officer was shot and seriously, seriously injured ,” Snelling said. “Sometimes, it’s a matter of inches that determines if that person lives or not. That’s what happened here.”
During a wide-ranging interview, Snelling acknowledged that he has not yet filled the 162 consent decree positions that Johnson restored to his 2025 budget after Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul threatened to ask a judge to hold the city in contempt. He said it takes time to “make sure that we’re hiring the right people.”
The Trump administration is attempting to dismantle consent decrees applied to other big-city police departments, but Snelling said he’s not concerned about that happening here because Raoul’s office is a party to the Chicago decree.
Now that newly purchased helicopters have helped police chase carjacking and robbery suspects while reducing the number of squad car chases, Snelling believes it’s time to consider taking advantage of another technology with crime-fighting potential: drones.
“There are concerns about privacy. But they can be very, very helpful in certain situations. They were helpful during the DNC — not flown by us, but [by] the feds. They have a drone program. They don’t necessarily have to do deal with the laws we have to deal with,” he said.
Does that mean state laws that sharply restrict drone use should be relaxed?
“I don’t know if I like to use the word `relaxed,’” Snelling said. “What I would like to see is…collaboration where we’re all talking about the same thing and finding out what the most effective way to use drones would be to keep crime down and get to the bottom of crime.”