Politics

City Panel Rejects Proposal to Pay $1.25M to Dexter Reed’s Family

A key City Council panel voted 12-15 to reject a proposal to pay $1.25 million to the family of Dexter Reed, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer during a 2024 traffic stop after he wounded an officer.

The rejection of the proposed settlement means the federal lawsuit filed by Reed’s family alleging that the city violated Reed’s civil rights will now head to trial.

Shortly after Reed shot and wounded an officer, four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Reed on March 21, 2024, hitting him 13 times, according to a preliminary investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA. Reed was stopped by a tactical team of officers in plainclothes driving an unmarked SUV.

Caroline Fronczak, assistant corporation counsel, said it was likely to cost the city $3 million to $5 million to defend the officers and the city at trial.

“This case started with an unconstitutional traffic stop and ended with the tragic death of Dexter Reed,” said Andrew M. Stroth, the attorney for Reed’s family. “Action needs to be taken by city leadership to resolve this case, follow the mandate of the consent decree and protect the sanctity of life, especially in communities of color.”

The consent decree is the federal order that requires CPD to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights.

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) said the traffic stop occurred in a “gang-infested” part of the West Side, on the border between Humboldt Park and Garfield Park.

“I don’t know how I would have reacted if a car full of plainclothes people pulled up on me like that,” Burnett said, adding that the settlement would be “cost efficient.”

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) said a decision by the City Council to settle the lawsuit “would give license to people to shoot officers.”

“You all should be ashamed of yourself,” Lopez said.

There was no discussion of whether the settlement would also ban Chicago police officials from requiring officers to make a certain number of traffic stops.

A spokesperson for CPD has told WTTW News in a statement the department does not “utilize quotas” for traffic stops.

WTTW News reported in October that COPA identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and aggressive stops on the city’s West Side at least a year before Reed’s death. The agency said it had evidence that officers were routinely engaging in misconduct that violated CPD rules and put Chicagoans at risk of a violent encounter with officers for at least a year.

The lawsuit filed by Reed’s family claims the city and police department should be held liable for Reed’s death, because officials knew officers were improperly stopping drivers and pedestrians on the West Side and did nothing to stop it.

A spokesperson for COPA told WTTW News the probe into the shooting is ongoing. One of the officers who stopped Reed, Alexandra Giampapa, resigned from CPD in November and is now an officer with the Tipp City, Ohio, police force.

Snelling refused former COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten’s call to relieve them of their police powers.

Officers told COPA investigators at the scene of the fatal shooting they stopped Reed because they believed he was not wearing his seat belt, a violation, according to reports signed by the officers involved and released by COPA through a Freedom of Information Act request.

WTTW News reported in April that the five officers who stopped Reed had racked up three dozen complaints in the months before the March 21 shooting. Those complaints were provided to WTTW News by COPA after a Freedom of Information Act request.

One of the officers fired at least 50 times at Reed, including three times while he was motionless on the ground, according to a letter sent by Kersten to Snelling. That officer reloaded his weapon twice, while three other officers reloaded their weapon once, according to the letter.

That letter also questioned the basis for the traffic stop that led to Reed’s death.

“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. “This evidence raises serious concerns about the validity of the traffic stop that led to the officers’ encounter with (Reed).”

After Reed’s death, police brass agreed to expand a federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers to include traffic stops. That agreement has yet to be finalized, as officials determine what power the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, the police oversight board known as the CCPSA, should have over the hot-button issue.

The CCPSA was deeply critical of Kersten’s handling of Reed’s shooting, saying her decision to publicly question whether police officers involved in the case had been truthful raised questions about whether COPA could conduct an impartial investigation into the incident.

Kersten said those charges were unfair and unfounded.

Kersten resigned after the CCPSA told her they planned to hold a no-confidence vote in her leadership, a move that would have likely led to her termination.

The city is facing a class-action lawsuit over CPD’s use of traffic stops. In that suit, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois claims CPD unlawfully stops Black and Latino drivers disproportionately because of their race.

A CPD spokesperson told WTTW News in a statement that traffic stops are “not conducted based on race or any other protected class” and all officers must undergo training designed to combat implicit bias.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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