>> We focused a lot on efforts by the city, the police department and the community to forge a better relationship and work together to build a safer city.

One thing we've been following closely is the consent decree that the Chicago Police Department has been working under.

We thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and explore exactly how the consent decree works.

Here's Heather Sharon with the latest edition of our series W T Tw News explains.

>> The Dash cam video of the murder of Laquan McDonald capture.

One of the darkest moments in the 119 year history of the Chicago Police Department.

>> In response, Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised there would be, quote, no u-turns on the road to reform.

But since city officials into the 2019 police consent decree agreement, that effort has hit pothole after pothole.

The consent decrees of finding court order granting a federal judge oversight of the department.

It was designed to correct the problems outlined by an investigation by the Justice Department chiefly that Chicago police were found with routinely violated black and Latino residents.

Constitutional While a consent decree can be a powerful tool to reform police departments.

It's complicated.

Here's how it's supposed to after Trump administration wash their hands of the reform effort and 2017, the Illinois Attorney General's office in a coalition of countries for format sued the city to force changes to how the police department operates.

That agreement requires the Chicago Police Department to change the way it trains supervises and disappoints The department must come up with new policies which are evaluated by the judge at 3 levels.

Preliminary compliance means officials who finalized written policies addressing its failures.

Secondary compliance means a majority of officers have been trained on those new policies.

Full compliance means that the department has demonstrated that it can follow those rules over a period of time under the judge's oversight.

Progress is monitored by independent team of experts on policing reform appointed by the judge to be their eyes in the years since it was put in place.

The consent decree has been expanded 3 times to address new scandals and allegations of misconduct and is set to expand again to include track steps.

Originally city officials had end of 2024 to comply with the consent decrees.

552 paragraphs.

It didn't happen now.

The consent decree which is expanded to 714 paragraphs.

I'm counting on expire until at least 2027 giving the city more time to fully comply with its requirements and convince the federal judge the problems won't reoccur at the same time, police union leaders say the consent decree has made it tougher for officers to enforce the law and apprehend criminals by imposing a layer, your honors in on everything they do.

>> After making only incremental progress during the years of the consent decree.

Some are concerned that the opportunity lasting reform is slipping away.

And city officials haven't yet demanded police brass us.

The city's reform push might not have pulled a U-turn.