One of Chicago’s newest police sergeants had been deemed “unfit to serve” after an investigation uncovered evidence that he created a fake Facebook account and spread a nude photo of a woman he was sexually involved with, then lied to investigators about it.
Another new sergeant had been found to have engaged in conduct that “seriously undermines public faith, credibility, and trust in the Department” after he was accused of sexual assault and domestic violence.
The conclusions were made by independent investigators from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. COPA recommended firing both. The first officer ultimately negotiated a one-year suspension and was assigned to supervise officers downtown and in the West Loop. The second officer’s case is still pending; he was assigned to supervise officers patrolling neighborhoods on the city’s South Side.
The officers’ promotions this spring were not due to an oversight. Department officials knew about their disciplinary records, but those records could not be considered as the department evaluated their fitness for promotion.
The main qualifying factor was their test scores from a two-part exam.
That Chicago police officers can rise in the ranks in spite of significant problems in their records reflects a decadeslong failing that the Chicago Police Department has been repeatedly called on to fix, an investigation by the Invisible Institute and ProPublica found.
Chicago’s system of promotions remains out of step with other big cities. Police departments in New York City and Los Angeles consider disciplinary records before promoting officers, seeing their past actions as a critical factor in determining if they’re fit to supervise others. A survey conducted for the CPD of more than a dozen major departments found that only one did not consider discipline in promotions.
In New Orleans, the police department created a promotions policy that considers an officer’s disciplinary history after it fell under a federal consent decree stemming from decades of corruption and misconduct. The department took nearly four years to create and launch its new policy.
Chicago is nearly seven years into a state consent decree that is intended in part to address issues with the department’s promotions system. Between November 2023 and this April, the city has paid a consulting firm at least $430,000 to study personnel policies, including making recommendations on how to incorporate disciplinary histories into the process.
The problem, however, remains unaddressed by the department.
That means officers like Sgt. Ernesto Guzman-Sanchez, accused of distributing a nude photo of a woman he knew, and Sgt. Christopher Lockhart, whom oversight investigators found responsible for acts of domestic violence and sexual assault, can continue to move up the ranks despite their disciplinary records.
In 2020, COPA ruled that Guzman-Sanchez “went to great lengths to conceal” his actions regarding the photo. The officer challenged the proposed firing, and during a Chicago Police Board hearing, his brother claimed responsibility. Department officials said the evidence was inconclusive and negotiated a suspension.