Chicago Police Department Suspends Outdoor Roll Calls
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Police Department has halted the use of outdoor roll calls "out of an abundance of caution," following the recent attacks on police officers in Dallas and in Baton Rouge.
"Outdoor roll calls are postponed but not canceled," said Police News Affairs Director Anthony Guglielmi in a statement released Wednesday.
The department is taking the precaution, even though, he said, "There are no specific or credible threats to Chicago."
The department has utilized outdoor roll calls for a number of years as a show of force, to foster transparency, and to enable police to rebuild trust in the community. Their use had stepped up noticeably since January, in the wake of the protests that followed the October release of the dash-cam video that showed Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times.
The statement did not indicate how long the moratorium would last. Chicago Police have utilized the outdoor roll calls in a number of city neighborhoods, and did a joint roll call this spring on Howard Street with the Evanston Police Department.