Crime & Law
Police Misconduct Agency Rejects Watchdog’s Demand to Reopen 5 Probes Closed During Push to Clear Backlog
Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, appears on “Chicago Tonight” on June 28, 2023. (WTTW News)
The leaders of the agency tasked with investigating misconduct by Chicago police officers refused requests from the city’s watchdog to reopen five probes into a wide range of police misconduct that were closed during a push to clear a massive backlog, records show.
In each of the five cases, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg informed Civilian Office of Police Accountability Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten that the agency known as COPA had erred when it closed those cases because they involved serious allegations of police misconduct that were not eligible to be closed as part of what COPA called its Timeliness Initiative.
Witzburg told the City Council’s Ethics and Government Oversight Committee on Sept. 9 that she is auditing the initiative and expects to weigh in soon on COPA’s decision to close 675 police misconduct probes that were more than 18 months old. Another 188 cases were reviewed, but kept open, according to data provided by COPA to WTTW News.
“We will have more to say about the Timeliness Initiative from an oversight perspective,” Witzburg told the committee, adding that she was concerned that the way the policy had been implemented allowed serious cases of police misconduct to fall through the cracks, preventing officers from being held accountable for wrongdoing.
“If cases are being improperly closed short of an investigative finding, then people who receive repeated, successive allegations are never going to build the kind of disciplinary history which would permit progressive discipline and which would feed the sort of risk analysis that is mandated, for example, by the consent decree in the risk intervention program,” Witzburg said.
A 2017 probe by the U.S. Department of Justice found that Chicago police officers were rarely held accountable for misconduct because of badly broken systems as well as a “code of silence” among officers that allowed them to act with impunity.
CPD has fully complied with just 7% of the court order known as the consent decree designed to require the department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, according to the latest report to the federal judge overseeing the reform effort.
COPA’s massive backlog hampered the ability of the agency to investigate more recent complaints alleging significant misconduct by officers, Kersten told WTTW News.
First Deputy Chief Administrator Ephraim Eaddy said in a statement that COPA leaders “conducted a rigorous review of each of these cases prior to closure.”
“At least two COPA staff members, including a director or deputy chief, considered available evidence to determine the practicality of continued investigation,” Eaddy said. “In each of these cases, COPA determined either that there are no viable allegations of misconduct that could be sustained or that it is improbable that discipline would be imposed.”
When Kersten announced the initiative, she said COPA would not close complaints that involve shootings, excessive force, sexual misconduct, domestic violence or bias. Cases alleging “egregious” misconduct or those involving minors or vulnerable adults will not be closed either, Kersten added.
In the inspector general’s second quarterly report, issued July 15, Witzburg said each of the five cases she asked COPA to reopen included allegations that did not qualify for inclusion in the Timeliness Initiative, including the execution of search warrants, excessive force or the involvement of juveniles.
In one instance, Chicago taxpayers paid $50,000 to resolve a lawsuit brought by one of the complainants in a case closed without discipline by COPA.
In that case, officers responding to a call of a domestic disturbance placed a woman who was not dressed in street clothes in a “Full Nelson” hold with the officer’s arms beneath her armpits and their hands linked behind her head. That hold is considered extremely dangerous by many experts.
At the same time, the officer — who was behind the woman — pushed her against the front porch of the residence.
“The arrestee informed officers several times she was not wearing undergarments under her nightgown and could feel the officer’s genitalia touching her body,” according to Witzburg’s report.
The officer pushed her to the ground, dislocating her knee, according to Witzburg’s report.
Neither officer was disciplined in connection with that incident, and remain on the force, earning more than $110,000 annually.
COPA also closed its probe into the execution of a search warrant in July 2019 that has a number of similarities to the botched raid in February 2019 that left social worker Anjanette Young handcuffed while naked by officers who ignored her pleas for help.
That complaint included evidence that officers had meant to search the apartment above the one they entered while its occupants were asleep and unclothed. One person was handcuffed during the search, which uncovered no evidence of any crimes. The officers who conducted the raid were not wearing identifying information, including their names and badge numbers, as required. Their faces were obscured with masks, according to the complaint.
None of the officers involved were disciplined, although COPA recommended that the sergeant in charge of the raid be retrained on the need for officers to properly display identifying information, according to Witzburg’s report.
Another case closed by COPA without discipline was prompted by a complaint filed by a driver who was stopped by police. They accused an officer of grabbing their genitals during a search that took place while they were in handcuffs.
COPA also refused to reopen a probe prompted by a complaint filed by two men who were stopped by officers while they rode their bicycles on a sidewalk, which is against the law. One of the men alleged that two officers kneeled on his back for several seconds after they had been detained by officers.
CPD’s rules governing the use of force direct officers to avoid kneeling on suspects they are detaining.
In the final probe closed by COPA over the objections of the inspector general, officers stopped a teen they believed was acting suspiciously in January 2022. The teen fled, and the officers chased the teen on foot.
CPD policy at the time prohibited officers from chasing people who they do not have probable cause to suspect committed a felony unless they pose a threat. When officers caught the teen, the teen did not have a weapon or drugs, according to the report.
After an initial probe, COPA investigators determined the officers turned off their body-worn cameras and did not notify dispatchers of the foot chase, according to the report.
The case was closed even after a COPA investigator prepared a document recommending some of the officers involved be suspended for as long as four days. It is unclear why that disciplinary recommendation was never finalized, according to the report.
A Misconduct Agency Under Fire
COPA was born out of the outrage that greeted the video of the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, released in November 2015.
As protests and demands roiled the city and reshaped the political landscape, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel scrapped the Independent Police Review Authority, known as IPRA, after declaring that it had utterly failed to even investigate wrongdoing by police officers, much less hold them accountable.
Between 2007 and 2016, IPRA probed more than 400 police shootings. The agency ruled just two were not justified.
COPA was supposed to usher in a new era of police accountability, with officials vowing to adequately fund the agency and staff it with professionals unafraid to bring disciplinary cases against officers found to have violated department rules.
Immediately after its 2017 launch, COPA found itself hamstrung by the massive backlog of nearly 1,000 cases it inherited from IPRA. Its first chief administrator lasted only a year in the position, and her successor lasted just three years before being fired by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who harshly criticized the agency for taking too long to investigate a number of high-profile incidents of police misconduct.
Kersten was confirmed in 2022 by the City Council after a bruising fight that began when COPA released a report that recommended that Officer Ella French, slain in August 2022, be disciplined for conduct during the botched raid of Anjanette Young’s home in February 2019.
That fracas meant Kersten never enjoyed the support of City Council members who consider themselves to be pro-police, many of whom echoed criticism lobbed at the agency by John Catanzara, the president of the police union who often describes his officers as struggling to do their jobs amid unfair and biased treatment by COPA.
By the time COPA cleared the IPRA backlog in 2021, the agency struggled to handle nearly 400 complaints of police misconduct during the unrest that swept the city in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd.
That stretched COPA to the breaking point at a time when the agency was struggling to cope with the shift to remote work because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kersten said.
In June 2023, Kersten said she decided to take action on COPA’s backlog after seeing dozens of recommendations for discipline overturned or significantly reduced by arbitrators, who must be sure that employees are treated fairly during disciplinary actions by ensuring complaints are handled swiftly, typically within 18 months, and that any punishment is in line with consequences faced by other officers with similar allegations.
A 2021 audit by the city’s inspector general detailed that police officers found to have committed misconduct often see their punishment reduced after arbitration, which is required by the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the unions representing Chicago’s police officers.
COPA’s efforts to hold officers accountable for misconduct were also complicated by a provision in the agreement that extended the city’s contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, that gave COPA just 45 days to conclude all investigations that had been pending for more than 18 months. Otherwise, those cases would be closed, without resolution, according to the contract.
The City Council’s approval of that deal set off a mad scramble by investigators at COPA to review and complete more than 200 cases, Kersten said.
In 26 cases that were part of that review, the probe by COPA found significant misconduct by an officer and Kersten urged that person be terminated. Since the start of the year, COPA has recommended at least 28 officers be fired, including 19 on a single day. By comparison, COPA recommended that 32 officers be fired in all of 2023.
Those recommendations infuriated Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who publicly blasted Kersten for treating Chicago police officers so unfairly that they are at risk of suicide. The probes also compromise public safety, the city’s top cop said.
Although he did not name her, Snelling accused Kersten of allowing “personal opinions and speculation” to influence findings that an officer has committed misconduct and should be disciplined.
Kersten has said COPA has always “acted with integrity.”
Just 18% of the cases decided by COPA officials recommended any form of discipline in 2023, according to the agency’s annual report. In nearly 22% of the cases in which COPA urged an officer be disciplined, the city’s top cop disagreed with the agency’s conclusions.
In about half of those cases, COPA deferred to the superintendent’s decision. It is up to the police board to resolve the cases where disagreement persists, and those cases are often the subject of intense public scrutiny.
The breach between Snelling and Kersten deepened after four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Dexter Reed during a West Side traffic stop on March 21 shortly after Reed shot and wounded an officer.
Kersten immediately asked Snelling to strip the officers involved of their police powers and questioned whether the officers told investigators the truth when they said they stopped Reed because he was not wearing his seatbelt.
“Specifically, COPA is uncertain how the officers could have seen this seat belt violation given their location relative to (Reed’s) vehicle and the dark tints on (his) vehicle windows,” Kersten wrote in a letter obtained by WTTW News. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with (Reed).”
Snelling called that “irresponsible.”
It is standard procedure for the head of COPA to send the city’s top cop a letter detailing a recommendation to strip an officer of their badge during an investigation, and WTTW News routinely requests those documents. That letter is only available via a Freedom of Information Act request.
COPA also appears to be at odds with the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, known as the CCPSA, which has the power to fire Kersten.
The board voted unanimously on July 15 to ask Witzburg to probe “the quality and integrity” of COPA’s investigations into police misconduct as well as “the quality and integrity of COPA’s disciplinary recommendations, and retaliation against COPA employees who raise concerns about COPA’s investigations and recommendations.”
CCPSA President Anthony Driver told WTTW News that “concerning information” was brought to the board’s attention that warranted asking the inspector general to open a probe. That information has not been released publicly.
Matthew Haynam, a former supervisor with COPA, sued Kersten and COPA earlier this month, alleging he was fired after voicing concerns that COPA leaders are biased against the police and unprofessional.
Many of Haynam’s allegations echo Snelling’s criticism of COPA, as well as many of the claims made in a lawsuit filed by the police union against Kersten. The complaint includes no direct evidence of wrongdoing by Kersten or COPA, but questions her judgement and decisions.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
