Fired Chicago Police Chief Had Controversial Tenure in Newark

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was forced to resign Tuesday, after a white city police officer was charged last month with murder in the 2014 shooting death of a black teen.

McCarthy arrived in Chicago after nearly five years leading Newark's police department. He was hired by former Mayor Cory Booker, and his time in Newark was marked by controversy.

Newark has a system that tracks the smallest of activities in the city. But Booker told WNYC in early November that when he was mayor, he didn't have the same details about who police were questioning on city streets.

"I was measuring everything from potholes to parts ordered for our auto department, comparing patterns in data, reducing costs, creating more efficiency," he said. "We weren't collecting enough data on our stops."

Booker, who is now a U.S. Senator, stood by McCarthy, despite complaints from Newark residents.

But last year, a federal review found problems with Newark police enforcement, including disproportionate "stop and frisk" questioning of black residents.

Newark now requires reports for all police stops, including the race of the person questioned. And the department added bias training to help officers understand how they make judgments about people.

"It's not a knock on cops to say that we want to have the best possible training to deal with bias," Booker said.

A federal justice department report listed other problems with Newark police. For example, the report found officers did not give a sufficient legal basis for about three-quarters of all stops. And police used unreasonable force in one in five incidents reviewed.

The department's Internal Affairs unit found an officer used excessive force just once between 2007 and 2012, and that raises red flags with the federal investigators who say there should be more cases for a city of Newark's size.

A federal monitor will help the agency address those concerns.