Chicago announces training plans for 12,000 officers

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Police Department says beginning next year, every officer will undergo hours of training annually.

The new training regimen will be the first for many officers since graduating from the city’s police academy as new recruits.

The plan announced Thursday will expand training to 40 hours a year for every officer beginning in 2021, up from 16 hours next year.

The department said it expects the majority of its officers to have completed a four-hour course on a revised use-of-force policy by Oct. 15.

The effort to improve officer training comes in the wake of the 2015 release of video showing an officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. Jason Van Dyke has pleaded innocent to murder charges in the case

A U.S. Justice Department report in January described the department as a broken institution, singling out negligent training as a cause.