The head of the Chicago Police Department’s reform efforts submitted her resignation this week, less than a year after her predecessor was fired from the same position.
Records obtained by the Tribune show Tina Skahill, the executive director of the CPD’s office of constitutional policing and reform, tendered her resignation from the department on Monday, with her departure to take effect on June 17.
The notice states that Skahill, a longtime supervisor in the CPD who worked for the department for more than 30 years, cited “retaliation” as the reason for her resignation, though additional details were not provided and Skahill could not be reached for comment Thursday.
“We thank Executive Director Skahill for her years of dedicated service to the Department and the people of Chicago,” a CPD spokesperson said in a statement.
Skahill has helmed the CPD’s reform office since August 2022. Her predecessor, Robert Boik, was dismissed by former Superintendent David Brown after he protested Brown’s plan to move several dozen officers from the constitutional policing office into the CPD’s bureau of patrol.
The office of constitutional policing and reform is responsible for developing and implementing policies that adhere to the 799-paragraph federal consent decree that was codified in 2019. The sweeping court-ordered reforms were born of the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in 2014 and the subsequent investigation of the CPD by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The independent monitoring team that evaluates the CPD’s consent decree compliance said last year that staffing shortages in the constitutional policing office could seriously hinder the department’s already lagging reform efforts.
Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner contributed to this story.
