Chicago’s top cop defends clearing officers on extremist group’s membership list

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling on Friday defended the decision not to discipline any of the nine current members of his force whose names appeared on the membership list of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist group with a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The Chicago Police Department’s leaders revealed in a statement Thursday that a six-month probe by the CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs concluded that charges against all of the officers were “not sustained.”

In October, Snelling had promised the City Council that the CPD would conduct a “thorough investigation” and show no tolerance for cops with extremist connections.

But on Friday, at an unrelated news conference alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson, Snelling said he felt strongly that there was no cause for action against the cops after they were investigated completely.

“I can tell you that we reached out to everybody,” Snelling said. “Our internal affairs division has reached out to everyone to gather information to determine if those officers were actually proven to be members of hate groups.”

Johnson was elected last year after a campaign in which he promised to rid the police department of any members of the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys, another extremist group involved in the 2021 Capitol riot.

He reiterated that pledge last year, after the “Extremism in the Ranks” series by the Sun-Times, WBEZ and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project detailed serious misconduct complaints — including racism and excessive force charges from civilians and fellow cops — against some of the Chicago cops on the Oath Keepers member rolls.

But on Friday, Johnson said it appeared the department had no other option but to close the investigation.

“If there is no evidence that corroborates or substantiates someone’s involvement as a member of one of these groups, there are very few courses of action that can be taken,” the mayor said.

Johnson also backed Snelling, his pick as superintendent, as being “very much committed and capable of leading that department,” and he said he trusted Snelling to give proper “attention to individuals who are bad actors or who have displayed reprehensible behavior.”

Johnson said he did not think his position on extremism and the CPD had shifted after a reporter noted his campaign pledge on the issue and contrasted it with the outcome of the internal investigation.

“If there’s evidence that someone is confirmed to be a part of a hate group, absolutely I still stand by my position,” Johnson said.

The CPD has not released any documents from its internal affairs investigation into the Oath Keepers’ influence but Snelling promised to post the files online by the end of Friday, to publicly show “the measures and the steps that were taken” in the probe.

Snelling also said he welcomed a review of the investigation by City Hall’s independent inspector general, Deborah Witzburg. She has blasted the department’s handling of other cases involving extremist influence among the CPD’s ranks and has said the city has the authority to fire cops for joining anti-government groups.

Months after the 2021 insurrection in Washington, a list of about 38,000 people from across the country who joined the Oath Keepers emerged publicly.

The names of 27 current and former Chicago cops were among them — with many of them highlighting their ties to the department, paying membership dues, providing detailed personal information and even promising to recruit at roll-call meetings before cops begin their shifts on patrol, according to the leaked data.

But when interviewed last year about their ties to the Oath Keepers, some of the current officers on the membership list said they had limited involvement and decried its actions in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

On Friday, Snelling said it was “misleading to tie this to Jan. 6” and said erroneously that the CPD’s internal investigation into the matter dates to before the 2021 Capitol riot.

In fact, department records show an internal investigation was opened later in 2021, after National Public Radio reported that some officers in Chicago and other cities appeared on the Oath Keepers membership list.

That investigation was closed in 2022, according to department records, even after the Anti-Defamation League provided a top official with names of officers that were on the list. Records show the CPD concluded being in the extremist organizations “in itself is not a rule violation.”

The just-closed internal affairs probe was opened last year, when WBEZ and the Sun-Times inquired about the ADL’s letter to the top official.

The nine active-duty Chicago officers who appeared on the Oath Keepers rolls are: Sgt. Michael Nowacki, Detective Anthony Keany and Officers Phillip Singto, Alberto Retamozo, Matthew Bracken, Bienvenido Acevedo, Dennis Mack, Alexander Kim and John Nicezyporuk.

A leading civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, on Friday strongly criticized the Chicago Police Department’s handling of the issue.

“Every time Chicagoans demand police accountability, nothing happens,” said Jeff Tischauser, a Chicago-based senior researcher with the SPLC. “It is utterly disappointing that Supt. Snelling and the Chicago Police Department Bureau of Internal Affairs closed these cases and did not sustain any allegations.”

Tischauser said cops who associate with extremism bring shame and distrust upon all officers, including the majority of the rank-and-file cops who are “trying to do good” and care deeply about the city.

“These officers with these ties to hate and extremist groups tarnish the reputation of CPD,” he said. “How can we trust any Chicago police officer when their leaders allow officers with ties to hate and extremist groups to go unpunished?”

The “Extremism in the Ranks” investigation also found other law enforcement agencies in Illinois have shied away from disciplining officers whose names appeared on the Oath Keepers list, including an Illinois State Police trooper and a member of campus police force at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Tom Schuba is a criminal justice editor for the Sun-Times.