CPD rank-and-file cops issue no-confidence vote against Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown

Rank-and-file Chicago police officers on Wednesday issued a no-confidence vote against police Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a meeting held by the city’s largest police union, according to union officials.

The no-confidence vote — also directed against Brown’s second-in-command, First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter — is the latest showing of tension between the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police and city leaders concerning myriad issues with the nation’s second largest police force.

The FOP and the Lightfoot administration have remained starkly divided on the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement for Chicago’s thousands of rank-and-file cops, who’ve gone without a police contract for more than three years.

Wednesday’s FOP meeting was attended by 150 to 200 active and retired officers and all of them supported the vote of no confidence, according to the FOP. Some of the reasons for Wednesday’s vote include officer exhaustion and Chicago Police Department officials’ decision on several occasions to cancel days off for cops, moving them from 8 ½-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts, and taking robbery detectives away from their cases and moving them to patrol duties, according to the FOP.

These directives have come at a time when Brown and other CPD leaders have been under pressure from Lightfoot to find ways to combat big increases in city violence. Through May 2, homicides in the city were up 22% over the same period last year, going from 160 to 195, official CPD statistics show. The 195 slayings were also a 35% jump over the last two years. Total shootings through May 2 were also up over the last two years by 58%, the statistics show.

Another reason the FOP cited for the no-confidence vote was the CPD’s cancellation this year of its annual St. Jude Memorial March for fallen officers, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wednesday’s vote occurred as the Police Department has come under heavy pressure by police accountability advocates to adhere to a federally mandated consent decree to improve the training and supervision of its officers and fix other longtime deficiencies.

The no-confidence vote is only a symbolic action taken by the rank and file. But FOP President John Catanzara said he hopes it forces city officials to “respond on what they think about it.”

At an unrelated news conference on Thursday, Brown responded to the no-confidence vote by emphasizing the need to “stay focused on protecting the people of Chicago.”

“In addition, we are in the midst of some of the most significant policies reforming this Police Department,” he said. “It is really important to keep your eye on the ball to make sure that we stay focused.”

Lightfoot, meanwhile, was more fiery about the no-confidence vote when she talked to reporters Thursday at a separate news briefing. She blamed the FOP for not being serious with city officials at the bargaining table for a new police contract and noted that the rank and file is losing “literally tens of thousands of dollars every, every year in backpay that they are entitled to” because the union isn’t willing to work on a deal with city officials.

“So frankly, getting a vote of no confidence from that guy is a badge of honor,” Lightfoot said of Catanzara.

No-confidence votes against police leaders from FOP officials or rank-and-file officers are not unprecedented, though it’s unclear if the rank-and-file or the FOP have ever included a sitting mayor in those votes.

In 2019, FOP officials issued a no-confidence vote for then-police Superintendent Eddie Johnson after he was criticized by the union for not attending a speech by then-President Donald Trump at McCormick Place for the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention.

Ten years earlier, the rank and file issued a no-confidence vote for then-Superintendent Jody Weis — who spent years with the FBI prior to leading CPD — at a time when the FOP cited low police morale and poorly staffed patrol beats, among other issues.

Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Pratt contributed.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com