With Chicago Police officers refusing to report their COVID-19 vaccination statuses, city streets soon could go unprotected. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is offering to call out the National Guard to keep order.

Chicago’s police union is planning to challenge Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and encouraging officers to ignore demands to report their vaccination status by Oct. 15. Only about 25% of police are vaccinated.

It has been a year since George Floyd died beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee, setting off riots in Chicago and protests across Illinois. Lawmakers vowed reforms, but nothing will change as long as police contracts overpower state law.

Both police reform advocates and law enforcement supporters face the same serious obstacle in Illinois: police union contracts include provisions protecting officers from discipline. Those contracts carry more weight than state law.

If the Illinois General Assembly wants to see true police reforms, it must first change the state law that gives police union contracts more power than public laws and regulations. Without that change, reforms become empty intentions.

A police union contract that protects deviant officers while muzzling those who wish to serve honorably is one set up to fail the public.