Chicago Police Superintendent Rejects Call for Review of Rising Use-of-Force Incidents

Snelling says deeper analysis would 'take out the human element' of policing decisions.

Apr. 14, 2026 at 9:27pm

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An extreme close-up photograph of a police officer's handcuff key against a pitch-black background, creating a stark, gritty, investigative aesthetic that conceptually represents the debate over policing tactics.A police department's use-of-force data reveals a troubling rise in reported incidents, sparking renewed calls for transparency and accountability.Chicago Today

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling has pushed back against a call by the Illinois Attorney General's office to review the department's rising use-of-force incidents. Snelling argued that a deeper data analysis would overlook the nuances of policing and the 'human element' involved in officers' decisions to use force, even as the department has acknowledged a concerning increase in such incidents since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why it matters

The debate over use of force by Chicago police officers has been an ongoing issue, with community groups and civil rights advocates pushing for greater transparency and accountability. The consent decree monitoring team has also urged the department to improve its data collection and analysis practices around use-of-force incidents. Snelling's resistance to a deeper review could further strain relations between the department and oversight bodies.

The details

During a status hearing on the city's federal consent decree, an assistant attorney general noted a 'concerning' trend of more frequent use-of-force incidents reported by Chicago police, including in interactions with juveniles. CPD officials acknowledged that reported use-of-force incidents fell sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic but have gradually increased each year since 2022, reaching 3,044 incidents in 2025 - an 800-case increase from 2023. The consent decree monitoring team has urged CPD to bolster its data collection and analysis, and the department has increasingly relied on body camera footage as a training tool. In response, Superintendent Snelling argued that a 'deeper dive' into the incidents would 'take out the human element' of policing decisions, stating that only 5% of police-civilian interactions involve use of force and that not all such incidents involve excessive force.

  • In 2025, CPD officers reported 3,044 use-of-force incidents.
  • In 2023, CPD officers reported 2,244 use-of-force incidents.

The players

Larry Snelling

The Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department who pushed back against calls for a review of rising use-of-force incidents.

Mike Tresnowski

An assistant Illinois Attorney General who noted the 'concerning' trend of more frequent use-of-force incidents reported by Chicago police, including in interactions with juveniles.

Rebecca Pallmeyer

The U.S. District Judge overseeing Chicago's federal consent decree.

Maggie Hickey

The former federal prosecutor leading the consent decree monitoring team that has urged CPD to bolster its data collection and analysis practices.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS)

The school district that Superintendent Snelling referenced as having seen more students shot and killed this year than in the past 10 years.

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What they’re saying

“We believe that now is an appropriate time, given the progress that CPD has made in its policies and training, to discuss among the parties how are we ultimately going to measure full compliance. This type of assessment would be the first step to getting at the bottom of some of the concerning trends we've seen.”

— Mike Tresnowski, Assistant Illinois Attorney General

“If we just looked at numbers and we responded to calls for service and things of that nature based on statistics and numbers, we would take out the human element of what it is we need to respond to. The same thing needs to happen here when we're assessing uses of force.”

— Larry Snelling, Chicago Police Superintendent

“Are there times where our officers have used excessive force? Yes, and we can look historically at some of those things. But is that the most common practice that every time an officer uses force that force is excessive? No. What we need to do is look at what's proportional, what is reasonable under the totality of the circumstances.”

— Larry Snelling, Chicago Police Superintendent

What’s next

The consent decree monitoring team plans to continue pressing the Chicago Police Department to improve its data collection and analysis practices around use-of-force incidents. The Illinois Attorney General's office may also pursue further action to compel a deeper review of the concerning trends.

The takeaway

The debate over police use of force remains a contentious issue in Chicago, with community groups, civil rights advocates, and oversight bodies pushing for greater transparency and accountability, while the police department resists calls for deeper data analysis that it believes would overlook the nuances of on-the-ground policing decisions.