Crime & Law
Police Oversight Board’s New Leader on Welcoming City Ordinance, CPD Traffic Stop Policy
Chicago’s police oversight board has a new leader.
Remel Terry is now president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Terry has been a member of the commission, better known as the CCPSA, since it was launched in 2022.
The seven-person commission’s responsibilities include helping set policy for the Chicago Police Department, reviewing CPD’s budget and working with the department on community policing programs.
The commission is also charged with selecting the next chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, also known as COPA. The agency tasked with investigating misconduct by Chicago police officers has been without a permanent leader since February.
Terry joined WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” to discuss her new role and the search for new COPA leadership.
On choosing a new leader for COPA:
“COPA is the investigatory body that investigates police-involved shootings, anything that deals with excessive misconduct, excessive force, even if someone is hurt significantly and dies in police custody. … We’ve done our first round of interviews, and so we will be going into a second round. But unlike the initial search that plenty of people are familiar with, for the superintendent, this is unique because we get to choose the finalist, and so we will not be announcing any nominees, as we did previously in the superintendent search that led to Supt. (Larry) Snelling. So you won’t hear about this until we’ve settled on a final candidate.”
Terry said CCPSA is on track to announce its pick for a finalist by the end of the year.
On allegations CPD violated Chicago’s welcoming city ordinance:
“I’m proud to say we have not heard of any engagement from the department related to that, and we’ve been forthcoming and accountable in addressing those concerns. We’ve brought out the deputy chief to speak about the work of the department and their role as it relates to the welcoming city ordinance and ensuring that they are not engaging in that activity, because we do understand the impact that can have. … If you’ve seen things, share them with us, because we want to ensure that our department is adhering to that welcoming city ordinance.”
On the proposed police policy for pretextual traffic stops:
“I think we are at a place where we are developing out something that many people assumed was already in place. And so we currently have a position on certain types of restrictions, which, again, with this process, we’re now looking at putting traffic stops into the consent decree. So the largest piece is making sure that the commission maintains its authority of policymaking, because once something is in the consent decree, we sort of lose out on that authority. But we’re pleased that the department has agreed, IMT (Independent Monitoring Team) and others who are at the table, to keep us with our current role, so that we can make sure that we’re elevating not only the commission’s position, but also the positions of community voices.”
On adjusting to her new role:
“The transition has been a bit seamless, right? I think (former CCPSA President) Anthony (Driver) and I worked well together. I was his vice president for a while. We both started out on the interim together, so it’s been a bit seamless. We recently also elected my vice president, Commissioner Angel Rubi Navarijo, so we had our first meeting together last week, so I think it’s been pretty seamless of a transition. I’m just excited to implement some of my vision for the rest of my tenure that I have on this commission, which looks like connecting a lot of these different agencies and bodies who influence the overall public safety and accountability landscape, because I believe a lot of what we’re hearing, though, we may not have authority in some of those areas, we definitely can influence, make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the community where those bodies have the same level of oversight.”
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
