Chicago's top cop retiring after turbulent 3-plus years

CHICAGO — Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Thursday that he's retiring after more than three years as the city's top cop, a post he took over during one of the most violent chapters in the city's history and amid public outcry over the release of a video showing an officer shooting a black teen 16 times.

During a news conference in which Johnson announced his retirement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said he'd agreed to serve through the end of the year. A successor hasn't yet been named.

"These stars can sometimes feel like you're carrying the weight of the world," said Johnson, whose uniform includes four stars on each shoulder. "This job has taken its toll, taken a toll on my health, my family, my friends."

Johnson, who joined the force as a patrolman in 1988, signaled earlier in the week that he was mulling retirement because he wanted to spend more time with family. He said the decision would have nothing to do with an investigation into a recent incident in which he was found asleep behind the wheel of his SUV at a stop sign and his admission to Lightfoot that he'd had a "couple of drinks with dinner" that night.

He also has come under withering ridicule from President Donald Trump, both on Twitter and in a recent Chicago speech that Johnson boycotted to a national conference of police chiefs in which President Trump called the city a haven for criminals.

Johnson said none of that contributed to his decision to step down. He said the tool his job took on his family came into focus when he saw the pain on the faces of widows of officers who were killed this year, and in October when he went on his first family vacation since becoming chief.

"I saw how they missed me in that kind of setting ... and that's pretty much what did it," he said. "I can't keep punishing them."


An African American who spent his early childhood living in one of the city's most notorious public housing projects, the soft-spoken Johnson was a popular choice with the rank-and-file who felt they could trust him far more than McCarthy, a brash outsider who spent the bulk of his career in New York.



And he had to contend with President Trump, who repeatedly pointed to the gun violence in the city in his campaign and into his presidency to claim that the bloodshed could be halted if the city allowed its police officers to crack down on crime. At one point, Johnson called President Trump on his claim that an officer told him that gun violence could be solved "in a week," publicly telling the president if he has such a plan, he should share it.

Lightfoot praised Johnson Thursday for his willingness to implement reforms that make the city safer. She also noted how he stood up to the Trump administration by refusing to cooperate with federal agents' efforts to capture immigrants living in the country illegally, and more recently by boycotting the president's speech to a police chiefs convention.

"The superintendent stood tall and refused to stand on the stage with a president who has villainized our city's values (and) repeatedly lied about or progress on violent crime and about the superintendent personally," Lightfoot said.


As the McDonald case was advancing in court, Johnson also looked for ways to restore public confidence that had been shattered by the shooting and allegations that Van Dyke's supervisors and fellow officers had made a concerted effort to keep secret what happened that night in October 2014.


