Chicago police recommend firing of 7 cops for false reports

CHICAGO (AP) — Seven Chicago police officers accused of filing false reports in the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014 should be fired, the police superintendent said today, in a move aimed at repairing the reputation of a department dogged by decades of cover-ups and scandal.

The release last year of official police reports that directly contradicted video evidence of McDonald's shooting by a white police officer turned a spotlight on longstanding concerns about a "code of silence" in the Chicago Police Department, in which officers stay quiet about or even cover up possible misconduct by colleagues.

Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a statement that after reviewing documents, video and other evidence, he was accepting the recommendation of the city's inspector general to fire seven officers because of their accounts of the incident.

The officers violated Rule 14, which prohibits "making a false report, written or oral," Johnson said.

Johnson will take his recommendation to the city's police board, which will make the final decision on whether the officers should be fired. The process typically takes about seven months, so any decision to fire the officers is not likely until next year.