Proposed Anjanette Young ordinance fails in Chicago public safety committee

CHICAGO — A proposed ordinance to codify several changes after the wrongful raid of Anjanette Young’s home in February 2019 failed to make it out of the public safety committee.

During the committee hearing on Thursday morning, Anjanette Young said her life will never be the same after the experience.

“After 1,375 days, I still struggle with trauma from that night,” Young said.

She also said she hopes it doesn’t take long for Chicago to get this right.

Her comments came before the ordinance didn’t pass through the public safety committee with a 10-4 vote.

The ordinance will now stay in the committee.

In 2019, Chicago police raided the social worker’s home, handcuffed her and pointed guns at her while she was naked and crying out they had the wrong house. She had to fight to get the video released.

Changes in the proposal include:

• Ban no-knock warrants
• Requires officers to document and thoroughly vet tips from informants supporting a search warrant
• Use the least intrusive methods when executing warrants
• Requires police to track and publish information on all home raids
• Bans officers from pointing guns at children

The mayor’s office said the policy changes have already been made regulating search warrants, but sponsors of the ordinance said those changes don’t go far enough and they want them codified into law.

“Upon investigation, we found a lot of things that we can improve with the goal of making sure that what happened to Ms. Young doesn’t happen to another person in this city,” 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden said.

Young said she’s planning to make an endorsement in the race for mayor. She said she’ll keep working to get the ordinance passed and may also take her efforts to the state level.