John Catanzara, the president of Chicago\u2019s Fraternal Order of Police, was initially pleased with Snelling\u2019s selection as superintendent but is now skeptical: \u201cThe hope was that he was going to be less of a political creature.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Snelling denies politics played a role in Talley\u2019s selection. \u201cWhen it comes to promotion, I\u2019ll never give in to pressure from anybody,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI don\u2019t care who it is.\u201d He says he took his time to fill the role\u2009\u2014\u2009nearly 18 months, in fact\u2009\u2014\u2009because he wanted to first get a better understanding of what was needed in the job. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a believer that if you\u2019re going to be at the top of the food chain, you need to understand the moves that are being made.\u201d Nonetheless, Snelling reduced Talley\u2019s role significantly less than five months into her job, and she retired in October.<\/p>\n
I ask Snelling if politics ever gets in his way. He shrugs off the question. \u201cQuite often people believe that the mayor is involved in the movement within the Chicago Police Department. He\u2019s not.\u201d It\u2019s the superintendent who calls the shots, he emphasizes, adding that Johnson trusts him. \u201cI tell him that this is what we\u2019re going to do. People on the outside may not understand that. But on the inside, we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Snelling\u2019s office, there\u2019s a framed photograph. It\u2019s familiar because photos like this one made the rounds on social media in August 2024, right after the Democratic National Convention. It shows him standing in the middle of the street wearing a bulletproof vest, starched white shirtsleeves crossed over his chest. Two officers flank Snelling, their posture loose but focused. Behind them, a line of police in riot gear. It\u2019s dark outside and shadows are cast onto the asphalt from street lamps. Night has fallen and the city is calm.<\/p>\n
Snelling was charged with managing security surrounding the convention less than a year into the job. To him, the famously chaotic 1968 Democratic convention here was a result of insufficient training. So that\u2019s where he began his preparation, tapping not just his academy experience but the program he developed for safeguarding the 2012 NATO summit here. As the 2024 convention approached, Snelling met with organizers of the various planned protests. \u201cCome express your First Amendment rights,\u201d he told them. \u201cBut don\u2019t come here with violence or vandalism.\u201d Snelling planned details down to how to ensure officers stayed hydrated and fed. When an outer security fence was breached, he was on the scene\u2009\u2014\u2009in fact, he made sure he was onsite every day. \u201cIt can\u2019t be \u2018Do as I say, not what I do,\u2019\u2009\u201d Snelling tells me. The force\u2019s handling of the event was widely praised. This was no repeat of 1968: This time, there were only eight complaints of police misconduct filed during the convention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just over a year later, as ICE and Border Patrol agents surged into the city, Snelling faced another significant challenge. In October, tensions were raised by the Brighton Park incident in which a woman was shot and wounded; she was accused of ramming her car into a vehicle belonging to federal agents, but prosecutors dropped the charges. Fox News, citing an internal CPD dispatch, reported that the chief of patrol had told officers not to respond with help for the boxed-in agents.<\/p>\n
Soon after, Snelling held a press conference. He had wanted to stay away from politics, but he couldn\u2019t keep silent\u2009\u2014\u2009not when outsiders were questioning his people. He insisted that his officers were never told to stand down and, in fact, were at the scene. (Body camera footage released in November, though, confirmed that a lieutenant, citing Chief of Patrol Jon Hein, initially ordered officers not to respond, a directive that was ultimately countermanded.) Then, in a calm, no-nonsense delivery, Snelling pointed out something that had gone unsaid by city leaders: that protesters were taking a risk when they made federal agents feel threatened: \u201cYou are breaking the law when you do that, and you are putting yourself in danger. You may not like what they\u2019re doing. I can understand that there\u2019s a lot of emotions out there, but that does not mean that you get to commit a crime, especially one that could lead to deadly force.\u201d<\/p>\n
With so much anti\u2013federal agent fervor around town, it may not have been what Chicagoans wanted to hear. But it was what they needed to hear.<\/p>\n
The room roils with tension. It\u2019s February 2024, less than six months into Snelling\u2019s tenure as superintendent, and he is speaking at the monthly meeting of the Chicago Police Board, an independent civilian body that makes disciplinary decisions in cases of serious police misconduct. Also in attendance are officials from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, another independent agency, created in 2016 after the McDonald shooting to investigate misconduct complaints.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019d like to talk about is transparency, accountability, and officer wellness,\u201d Snelling says. He\u2019s sitting at a long table directly facing Andrea Kersten, COPA\u2019s chief administrator at the time, and he\u2019s referring to the ways in which COPA conducts its investigations. \u201cIt\u2019s affecting officers\u2019 performance, but it\u2019s also affecting the safety of members of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snelling is concerned that anti-police bias is playing a role in COPA\u2019s reviews. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing are egregious penalties for extremely minor infractions,\u201d he continues. He also wants COPA to take into account that police are often faced with split-second decisions. \u201cWe have officers right now who have been called murderers who were simply trying to protect themselves or protect someone else.\u201d As Snelling speaks, he taps his pen on the table for emphasis. These kinds of allegations hurt officers\u2019 mental health, he points out, and they become afraid to police effectively. Willful misconduct is one thing, but mistakes? Those are unavoidably human.<\/p>\n
Then Snelling punches hard: \u201cI hear it all the time: police accountability, police accountability. But who\u2019s overseeing the overseer?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kersten\u2019s response is measured. She argues that even honest mistakes can be misconduct. \u201cJust like you walk with officers, we walk with complainants who\u2019ve had a very different experience,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd we\u2019re not siding with them. But we have to receive their version of events.\u201d After she brings up the tenets of the federal consent decree that require de-escalation, Snelling responds. \u201cDe-escalation? You don\u2019t have to explain it to me. I wrote it,\u201d he says, referring to his years as a police trainer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After watching the exchange, Kalven was initially cautiously optimistic. In his mind, the open exchange offered a sense of new possibility for what police reform could look like. He saw the tension as a means for strengthening the quality of COPA\u2019s investigations. But that\u2019s not what ended up happening. \u201cI think the superintendent ran roughshod over that moment and that possibility,\u201d Kalven says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trouble began less than a month later when Dexter Reed, a 26-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by officers in Humboldt Park after a traffic stop. Reed fired first, injuring one officer, but the subsequent hail of gunfire by police\u2009\u2014\u200996 shots in 41 seconds\u2009\u2014\u2009raised concerns of excessive force. Reed\u2019s family also claimed that racial profiling had been behind the stop.<\/p>\n
In the ensuing weeks and months, the hopeful tension Kalven had seen between Kersten and Snelling got strained to a breaking point. On April 12, Snelling made his first public comments about the Reed shooting while meeting with the press about another matter. By then, COPA had announced that a seat belt violation prompted the traffic stop, a finding that Kersten then discussed in an interview with WTTW. At the press conference, Snelling expressed concern that comments about the case had been made before an investigation had been concluded: \u201cThose who are putting that information out there to the media are doing so irresponsibly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When a reporter asked the superintendent to clarify his remarks, Snelling shifted his body toward the mic, his eyes narrowed. \u201cIf that information came from COPA, then that\u2019s who I\u2019m talking about,\u201d he responded. \u201cInformation spreads like wildfire, and here\u2019s the issue\u2009\u2014\u2009and this is important to me.\u201d He paused. \u201cI\u2019m passionate about this because a police officer was shot.\u201d Snelling looked around the room. \u201cI\u2019ll repeat, a police officer was shot. A man lost his life. This isn\u2019t something that should play out in the court of public opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snelling had turned the heat up on Kersten. That fall, two former employees sued the city for wrongful dismissal, saying they were fired after criticizing Kersten\u2019s leadership. One of them claimed she made public comments about the Reed case that were \u201cunsupported by actual evidence\u201d from the investigation. Then last February, facing a vote of no confidence by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which oversees COPA, Kersten resigned.<\/p>\n
Kalven, for one, thinks the rigor of COPA investigations improved under Kersten\u2019s leadership, and he argues that focusing on the other aspects of her ousting obscures what he sees as the origin: Snelling\u2019s complaints about the way investigations were conducted. He\u2019s worried that Snelling\u2019s growing influence will result in the appointment of a new COPA chief who won\u2019t operate with the same level of independence as Kersten did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if [Snelling\u2019s] criticism is warranted,\u201d says a former member of COPA. \u201cBut what I do believe is that it risked undermining the integrity of the organization as a whole.\u201d If Snelling had real concerns about police bias or improper investigations, this person contends, he should have brought it up with the city\u2019s inspector general.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Kersten\u2019s departure, LaKenya White was named interim chief administrator of COPA. She has been with the agency since its inception. She also once worked in the CPD\u2019s now-defunct in-house internal review office. In August, the Sun-Times reported that White had withdrawn six previous disciplinary recommendations, including four that called for officers to be fired.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/01_FOB_TOC.LAY-P_995297.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A siren whirs outside the Hyatt Centric in the Loop as someone shuts off the lights and clicks on the projector. Inside a narrow conference room, Snelling faces a collection of round tables pressed against one another, wall to wall, each fully occupied. The room is packed with police leaders from around the country, plus one from Glasgow, who are in Chicago for a week of training with the Policing Leadership Academy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Snelling comes off relaxed but professional. He shifts his weight onto his heels, cracks a joke. He\u2019s killing some time while awaiting the arrival of a man named Darryl Smith, whom he calls Smitty. Snelling is here to lead a training session with him called Strategically Reducing Violence and Building Trust: A Community Case Study. More specifically, he is here to convince the men and women in the room to find a Smitty of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Snelling gets started without Smitty, telling the story of how they met. In 2020, a year after returning to Englewood as a lieutenant in the 7th District before his elevation to commander, Snelling saw Smitty screaming at a group of politicians on the corner of 63rd and Halsted. Smitty, the president of the community-led Englewood Political Task Force, was sick of people parading into the neighborhood looking for photo ops. Snelling walked up to him. \u201cI went to Englewood High School,\u201d Snelling began. \u201cI grew up right here. I understand you.\u201d Smitty heard that and thought, Well, OK, then I guess we can talk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after, on August 9, a mile north of where Smitty met Snelling, the police shot a man named Latrell Allen near Moran Park. The air in Englewood was thick with false rumors: that the person who was shot was only 15 (he was was 20), that he was unarmed (he wasn\u2019t), that he had died (he was only wounded). A couple of days later, organizers from Black Lives Matter Chicago pulled together a rally. But many of the protesters weren\u2019t from Englewood, and Smitty couldn\u2019t stand the thought of outsiders coming into his neighborhood to cause trouble. He had heard that the 7th District station had been identified as a target. There was talk of smashing out its windows. Smitty worked for the construction company that had built the station. There was no way he was going to let these outside agitators touch it. So he called Snelling.<\/p>\n
\nActivist Damien Morris has seen, under Snelling\u2019s leadership, a department that\u2019s more receptive to working with community-based violence intervention programs. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Snelling was already assessing the situation. That morning, he had set up blockades, cutting off traffic two blocks from the station. He had also contacted the BLM Chicago leadership: If they lobbed any bricks or rocks at the building, Snelling told them, his officers wouldn\u2019t hesitate to protect themselves. Then he got Smitty\u2019s call. Smitty had gathered a group of older men from the neighborhood, given them white baseball hats. \u201cLet us go out there and handle the protesters,\u201d he told Snelling. Snelling considered Smitty\u2019s offer and told his officers to hold back. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see some old Black dudes out there,\u201d Snelling told them. \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to be saying a whole bunch of Black dude shit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smitty and his white hats stepped to the protesters when they arrived. There was shouting and some pushing but, by all accounts, no violence. Snelling walked between the groups, making sure nothing got too out of hand, and the police, in riot gear, looked down from the steps of the station ready to intervene if needed. But that wasn\u2019t necessary. As night set in, the protesters dispersed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to get out of the mindset that it\u2019s all about the police,\u201d Snelling tells the officers in the hotel conference room. \u201cYou set your ego aside.\u201d He nods to Smitty, dressed in a gray suit, who is now standing on the other side of the screen, having slipped into the room as Snelling was winding down the story. (They\u2019ll end up telling it again, from Smitty\u2019s perspective.) Smitty smiles his toothy smile. \u201cYou realize you are partners,\u201d Snelling continues. \u201cThat\u2019s when we started to reach our goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to dismiss this as lip service, but I get the sense that Snelling genuinely believes in community partnerships. Damien Morris thinks so too. As the chief program officer of violence prevention at Breakthrough, an East Garfield Park nonprofit, Morris has been instrumental in developing the organization\u2019s response to neighborhood violence. He knows it\u2019s critical to use what he calls a \u201chyperlocal approach,\u201d hiring men and women from the community who have experience with gun violence, on both sides of the gun. \u201cThis is an issue we can\u2019t police our way out of,\u201d Morris tells me.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s seen, under Snelling\u2019s leadership, a department that\u2019s more receptive to working with community-based violence intervention programs. The nonprofit Metropolitan Family Services has been involving the CPD in its training sessions for its staff and community groups so that they can all better understand their respective roles. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative effort,\u201d Morris says. \u201cI think that\u2019s why [the police] are being more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week after the Policing Leadership Academy training session, Smitty is driving me around Englewood. We pull into the parking lot of a small corner store on West 66th and Halsted. It\u2019s late afternoon, the time of day when Smitty used to see Snelling walking the street back when he oversaw this area. Often, Smitty would join him, and neighbors, seeing the two men together, would ask what they were doing. \u201cMaking sure y\u2019all are safe,\u201d Snelling would say, calling them by name. \u201cHow you doing, Miss Jones? How you doing, Miss Brown?\u201d<\/p>\n
Smitty shifts his truck into reverse, and as we slowly pull out of the parking lot, we notice a pair of officers seemingly recording three Black teenagers from a patrol car. \u201cI don\u2019t like what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Smitty says, watching the scene through the rearview mirror. \u201cThat\u2019s just an interaction you really don\u2019t need. What I don\u2019t like is that things like that don\u2019t get back to Snelling.\u201d He decides he won\u2019t call and bug him about it.<\/p>\n
When Snelling was promoted out of Englewood in December 2020, he made sure to introduce Smitty to the new leadership. Since then, Smitty has cooperated closely with two different commanders who have rotated in, but I get the impression that working with Snelling was unique. Smitty tells me that even people who don\u2019t like the police like Snelling. \u201cThey know he is trying,\u201d Smitty says. \u201cI\u2019ve heard no one say a bad thing about him.\u201d Snelling does have his detractors, especially outside the department. But even those who are critical acknowledge he\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m reminded of the first time I met Snelling, in the hazy days of August, before our complicated city got even more complicated. After we shook hands, I noticed his boots, not standard issue. Instead of shoelaces, they had a nylon cord. Instead of eyelets and rivets, hooks caught the cord as it zigzagged up both sides to right above his ankles, where a clasp cinched it together. Strikingly utilitarian against the more traditional crispness of Snelling\u2019s uniform: an impeccably pressed white shirt, a thin black tie with a silver tie bar.<\/p>\n
There was what was to be expected, and then there was the engine of the operation. Formality propelled forward by focus. Deep treads and a long stride that don\u2019t have time for tying shoelaces. The city is waiting; his officers expect him. Superintendent Snelling has somewhere to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Snelling gets ready for work each morning, he thinks about what his message will be for his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":435538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[128961,2330,20174,960,201713,7122,174561,201715,181935,85280,201712,172518,5386,1818,201714,172509,12913,201719,145871,201721,201717,201722,201718,201720,201716,128580],"class_list":["post-435537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-andre-vasquez","tag-border-patrol","tag-brandon-johnson","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-police-academy","tag-chicago-police-department","tag-city-councils-budget-committee","tag-crime-gun-intelligence-center-of-chicago","tag-david-brown","tag-eileen-oneill-burke","tag-fraternal-order-of-police","tag-garry-mccarthy","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-invisible-institute","tag-jamie-kalven","tag-jason-van-dyke","tag-john-catanzara","tag-larry-snelling","tag-luis-huesca","tag-policing-leadership-academy","tag-raymond-lopez","tag-strategic-decision-support-centers","tag-susana-mendoza","tag-university-of-chicago-crime-lab","tag-yolanda-talley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}