Cook County Commissioner Luis Arroyo Jr. wants a new investigation into a parking ticket dispute that led to a top county police official’s ouster last week, saying racial bias may have played a role in the inspector general probe that sparked the controversy.
Arroyo allegedly contacted a high-ranking forest preserve police official in an effort to dismiss a $250 parking ticket issued to a political ally, according to a report from county Inspector General Patrick Blanchard’s office.
Arroyo has acknowledged to the Tribune that he contacted former county Forest Preserve police Chief Kelvin Pope to contest and challenge the citation — and arrange a meeting with officers to question them about their conduct.
But in a written statement Monday, Arroyo said he didn’t request the dismissal of any parking ticket and attacked the inspector general’s investigation.
“He never actually conducted an investigation but instead leveled accusations that make me, and other commissioners, concerned about his fitness for this position,” Arroyo said without identifying other concerned elected officials.
“I believe that racial bias resulted in the ticket and at this point, I have no reason to doubt that racial bias may have also played a role in this biased inspector general’s report,” Arroyo said.
Arroyo has cited racial undertones since acknowledging his role in the ongoing controversy and said he wanted to ensure that Latino residents were being treated fairly after a top employee of Northwest Side Ald. Gilbert Villegas was cited last fall for parking in a handicapped-accessible parking space in the Schiller Woods area.
The parking ticket arrived months after a viral video showed a man berating a woman for wearing a Puerto Rico shirt and a nearby forest preserve officer seemed to ignore her requests for help.
Blanchard, though, said race did not play a role in his investigation.
“The reality is that whichever commissioner might’ve been involved in a situation like this, the outcome will be exactly the same,” Blanchard told the Tribune. “As outlined in the report, the commissioner was interviewed in this case and he denied that race was reported to him as a basis for the issuance of the ticket.”
Arroyo said a white officer and a Latino trainee issued the ticket “without any reasonable justification.”
“I now call for an explanation by the inspector general to share his processes and procedures and show us what type of racial sensitivity training he and his staff have undergone,” Arroyo said. “In addition, I call for a reexamination of the incident that propelled the events mentioned in the report, by an unbiased independent source.”
Twitter @PerezJr
