Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s meeting with leaders from the Department of Justice today.
The federal agency is investigating the Chicago Police Department for civil rights violations.
"It is in our self-interest as a city that they’re here," Emanuel said, "because the problems and the challenges we have -- in the sense of police and community relations and the changes that we need -- are deep-seeded. They go way back."
Emanuel told reporters Wednesday that he’s been speaking privately with officers in several police districts, and he’s been calling meetings between cops, religious leaders and activists to talk to each other.
"We have to be able to have a conversation that distinguishes between individual officers and/or a culture, its impact on officers, and not how to paint in a broad stroke while we deal with this problem and this challenge," he said.
The mayor said the city hasn’t done enough in the past to deal with police misconduct or use of force.
Earlier this month, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the federal government to investigate the Chicago Police Department -- including how officers use deadly force.
Madigan says there’s been a pattern of allegations of Chicago police misconduct, besides the killing of Laquan McDonald.
Rahm at first spoke out against a federal investigation, but he said later that he would welcome the probe.
This week, the head of the Chicago police union told aldermen that recent rhetoric in the news media about police misconduct has kicked officers while they’re down.
