Chicago's new inspector general vows to not 'back down from difficult questions'
Deborah Witzburg, unanimously confirmed by the City Council after an eight-month search, says she has no intention of 'staying in her lane' as she takes over Chicago's watchdog office.
Chicago's City Council unanimously confirmed Deborah Witzburg as the city's new inspector general on April 27, 2022, ending an eight-month search that had left the office without a permanent leader, according to reporting from WTTW and the Chicago Sun-Times. Witzburg, who previously served as deputy inspector general for public safety, is locked into a four-year term.
'I didn't back down from difficult questions when I was deputy [inspector general] for public safety and I won't do so as inspector general,' Witzburg said, according to WTTW's coverage. The Sun-Times reported that Witzburg has 'no intention of staying in her lane' — a pointed line, since Mayor Lori Lightfoot had suggested the next inspector general should be someone who 'understands the importance of staying in their lane.'
Witzburg resigned her deputy post ahead of pursuing the top job specifically to avoid accusations of 'pulling punches' while a candidate, according to the Sun-Times report. Under her leadership, the public safety section of the inspector general's office had conducted high-profile audits critical of the Chicago Police Department and of Lightfoot's administration.
The record she's building on
Those earlier audits examined the city's error-filled gang database, slow compliance with a federal consent decree governing police reform, the effectiveness of the ShotSpotter gunshot-detection contract, and the Chicago Police Department's handling of civil unrest during the 2020 protests and looting.
How she got here
Witzburg earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Brown University in 2005 and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law, according to her official biography posted by the Chicago Office of Inspector General. Before entering city government, she worked as a project analyst at the law firm Mintz Levin from 2005 to 2007, then spent two years as a law clerk in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office starting in 2008, followed by nearly six years as an assistant state's attorney there, prosecuting misdemeanor and felony cases, per the same biography.
She joined the city's Office of Inspector General in 2016 as an assistant inspector general providing legal and strategic counsel on misconduct investigations, then rose through associate general counsel for public safety and chief investigator for public safety before Lightfoot named her deputy inspector general for public safety -- the post she held immediately before the promotion covered in this article. Witzburg became the first woman to serve as Chicago's inspector general, according to the OIG biography.
What she says she'll take on next
Witzburg said the office would continue pressing on police investigative and disciplinary transparency, staffing and allocation decisions, and rebuilding trust between residents and police. 'If officials feel warm about the watchdog, it's probably not doing its job,' she said, according to the Sun-Times. She also framed the office's mission in a line reported by the Sun-Times: 'This isn't a choice between reform and safety — it's reforming police to keep people safe.'
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by WTTW and the Chicago Sun-Times. It restores a story originally published on this site in May 2022; figures are as reported at the time.