Chicago’s mayor and police superintendent will announce Wednesday that every police officer who responds to service calls will be equipped with a Taser and properly trained to use it by June 1, a spokesman for the mayor said.
The announcement, scheduled to be made at 2 p.m. CT (3 p.m. ET), will be part of a major overhaul in Chicago Police Department policy, mayor’s spokesman Adam Collins said.
It comes as Chicago officials scramble to deal with what critics have slammed as a police culture of “shoot first and ask questions later.”
In the latest incident, police shot and killed Chicago teen Quintonio LeGrier and his 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones.
Police commissioner steps down amid protests
After that incident, Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut short a vacation in Cuba and returned to Chicago.
“He is cutting his family trip short so that he can continue the ongoing work of restoring accountability and trust in the Chicago Police Department,” Stephen Spector, another spokesman for the mayor, said in an email.
Last month, prosecutors announced an officer would face a first-degree murder charge in the 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Amid growing protests over that case and other officer-involved shootings, the city’s police commissioner resigned.
As details about the weekend shooting emerged, Emanuel said there were “serious questions” about what happened and ordered changes in how city police officers are trained to handle calls involving people who may have mental health problems.
About 20% of officers have Tasers
Some members of LeGrier’s family have said he suffered from mental illness, CNN affiliate WLS reported, but the teen’s mother has disputed that characterization.
“Stop disparaging his character,” she pleaded Sunday. “He does not have mental issues. He was an honors student.”
Currently, about 20% of officers who respond to calls for service have access to Tasers, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.