The agency tasked with investigating misconduct by Chicago police officers identified a troubling pattern of undocumented and unprofessional stops of Black people in a downtown police district, according to a document obtained by WTTW News. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which is better known as COPA, received more than 50 complaints that tactical team officers assigned to patrol Lincoln Park, West Town, Old Town, River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast and parts of Logan Square conducted “problematic” traffic stops and searches in 2024, according to a letter from Steffany Hreno, COPA’s director of investigations, to the head of Near North (18th) Police District. What the letter says:
More than 90% of the complaints investigated by COPA were sparked by officers’ decisions to pull over Black people, according to the letter. “While COPA recognizes that some of these street stops and traffic stops may have been justified, in their totality, the racial disparity in the stops may be indicative of implicit bias and/or racial profiling,” according to the letter to former 18th District Commander Michael Barz. The officers also engaged in “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct” that violates department policy, which included the “use of profanities, insults and threats of force,” according to the letter, which said some of the inappropriate conduct was witnessed by their direct supervisor, Sgt. Erick Seng. The eight officers named in COPA’s letter have been named in 13 lawsuits filed by Chicago drivers who said they were improperly stopped and searched near the North Michigan Avenue shopping district because they are Black, according to an analysis of court records by WTTW News.
Four members of the tactical team named in COPA’s letter have been stripped of their police powers, according to a department spokesperson. Chicago taxpayers have paid a combined $378,000 to resolve six of those lawsuits, records show. Each of the settlements were authorized by Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry and did not require City Council approval. Read the full letter here.
