Civilian oversight of police departments isn't always a useful mechanism for ridding a department of bad cops. Superintendents in the Chicago Police Department asked the Chicago Police Board to fire 80 officers between 2003 and 2007. The nine member board, appointed by the mayor, dismissed just 21 of them.

Some of the board's decisions are difficult to understand. Officer Gerald Callahan, an alcoholic and manic depressive, cost the city $15,000 after he handcuffed a bartender who refused to serve him. By itself, that incident and the settlement it provoked might have warranted discipline short of discharge. But when Callahan got out of rehab and was about to return to work, supervisors smelled alcohol on his breath. He became abusive when they asked him to submit to a breathalyzer. Callahan had been suspended twice before. How many chances does he deserve? Yet the Police Board decided he deserved yet another suspension, not termination.

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