Andrea Kersten’s Exit from Troubled COPA Could Lead To Fairer Police Oversight

With Kersten’s resignation, it’s time to disband COPA and consolidate and professionalize police oversight

The abrupt resignation of Andrea Kersten, Chief Administrator of the Chicago Office of Police Accountability (COPA) should be welcomed not only by Chicago Police but anyone who believes there is a need for justice and fairness for all. Ms. Kersten’s bias against Chicago Police officers is well documented. The replacement of Kersten for a more qualified COPA director notwithstanding, it’s high time that COPA go the way of the dinosaurs and that police oversight be consolidated into a single professional body.

As Chicago begins its search for a replacement to lead the troubled police oversight agency, now is the appropriate time to briefly examine Kersten’s record as head of COPA. Andrea Kersten’s legacy was characterized by her personal animus with Chicago Police and contributing heavily to an atmosphere at COPA that allows an anti-police bias to flourish. Recall her firing of two high-ranking officials last year, days after one former employee had lodged a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), imputing the office with a bias against the Chicago Police Department (CPD).

In one of her biggest blunders, Kersten presided over a report recommending the suspension of Officer Ella French for failing to activate her bodyworn camera as she accompanied officers mistakenly executing a search warrant on the home of Anjanette Young. Though French had been slain during a traffic stop months before the report was released, Kersten implausibly explained agency rules barred her from editing French’s name and recommendation for suspension from the report.

In another incident that revealed her hostility with CPD, Kersten’s office has delayed a final ruling on Officer Eric Stillman, who fatally shot Latin King gang member Adam Toledo. Despite former Superintendent of Police David Brown clearing Stillman, a respected police officer and Afghanistan War veteran, COPA is still trying to officially terminate him, denying him his benefits. It is important to note former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx found no grounds to charge Stillman, yet despite the State’s Attorney refusing to file charges after determining Stillman’s actions aligned with CPD policy, Kersten’s office, three years later, refuses to issue a ruling on Stillman.

In what is likely her biggest misstep, Kersten violated legal canon in July 2023 to give an update in the midst of the investigation on the phony "rape" case in CPD's 10th District. After months of probing the incident, COPA eventually closed the investigation without ever locating a "victim" or uncovering a shred of evidence to support the allegation police personnel had committed a crime or been involved in any form of misconduct.

Last year, Kersten bungled the Dexter Reed case and conveniently used a City Club appearance to publicly share her uninformed opinions before the COPA investigation of the police shooting of Reed had even begun. For an encore Kersten reprised her comments in interviews with WTTW, CBS 2, WGN radio, Stephen A. Smith’s podcast, and CNN. An outrage, for Kersten to grant interviews to discuss the ongoing investigation should have called her professionalism into question.

Kersten’s public comments in the Dexter Reed shooting would have been laughable if not for the fact she had held such an important position in city government. Kersten’s observations seemed to suggest discipline for Police — including criminal prosecution — would include the sum officers discharged their weapon at criminal offenders firing at officers. Does COPA now intend to adopt a rule governing the number of bullets officers fire at armed offenders? Rather than saddle officers with unnecessary rules in incidents that lead to use of lethal force, Kersten should have reminded the public of the grave consequences of opening fire on police officers. It is a simple rule: Don’t shoot at police!

Kirsten’s clear anti-CPD outlook, along with those of other so-called police reformers, is their obliviousness to the fact that police shootings a decade ago are a mere fraction of what they are today. There is an epidemic of violence against police officers. Since 2020, police have been shot at 330 times with 38 being shot or killed. On average, this is four to five times the number of police that are annually shot at in any year prior to 2020.

Across the country last year, more officers were assaulted during domestic disturbance calls more than any other category (27.3 percent). According to FBI stats, domestic calls are the most common circumstance in which officers are feloniously killed while on duty. These statistics are conveniently overlooked by COPA, the Consent Decree Monitor, and both community activists and criminal justice reformers mainly because it deflects from their preferred narrative of widespread police abuse and their justification for existing.

Dismantle COPA and consolidate and professionalize police oversight

With Kersten gone and COPA in a period of transition, and the CCPSA now fully constituted and operational, it is time for something more than you have advocated for in the past.  Right now, we have six separate bodies — five internal and one external to the City — with oversight responsibilities for CPD — COPA (investigative), BIA (investigative), Police Board (adjudicatory and policy), CCPSA (community oversight and policy), the Public Safety IG within the IG's Office (audit, investigative and policy), and then outside, the Consent Decree Monitor.

COPA has a history of long delays in investigations. Justice delayed is justice denied, even for police officers. These multiple layers of conflicting and sometimes unprofessional oversight are contributing to low morale, a historic exodus of officers, and are destroying CPD’s ability to engage in the proactive policing needed to contend with the surge of crime. Today, CPD has retreated from vigilant policing over fear of punishment and loss of support from both the public and lawmakers.

According to an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, the system by which members of the Chicago Police Department are reviewed and recommended for discipline lacks consistency and fairness. The OIG concluded agencies charged with investigating CPD members do not operate with sufficient guidance and controls to ensure procedural fairness and consistency. This is a serious problem.

Under current CPD and city policy, an officer facing an allegation of misconduct is investigated by CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) or COPA. In its findings, the OIG determined that neither BIA nor COPA’s policies “contain clear and actionable guidance on how investigators should weigh aggravating and mitigating factors in reaching disciplinary recommendations.” The OIG also rendered the view that “updates to BIA and COPA’s policies may still be inadequate to ensure consistency and fairness and the Police Board still lacks formal policies to consistently and fairly determine discipline for cases it considers.” A standard of fairness over how officers are judged is absent and problematic.

Aside from the absence of fairness and consistency in regard to how discipline is meted out, the lack of credible training for COPA investigators is a well-documented problem and illustrated on COPA’s own website. For example: COPA employees are charged with investigating Chicago Police officers for a variety of offenses related to use of force, yet the OIG’s report declared that “nowhere in their listed training do any investigators attend credible state-certified training on CPD Use of Force training, CPD policy and procedures, state law and CPD weapons tactics.”

A grave violation of state law, COPA has continued to carry out investigations of use-of-force incidents, despite the fact the agency’s investigators are not certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB). Every CPD Officer must be proficient, pass standardized testing and training in order to become a police officer. Why can’t COPA employees be held to the same standard?

Why are those who investigate police officers not trained and certified in the same categories as police officers themselves? Those promoted into COPA leadership positions seem to have been selected for reasons other than proven competence and expertise. Little wonder the OIG reports the lack of consistency and fairness in investigations of CPD members.

Let us be clear, the controversy surrounding COPA is not occurring in a historical vacuum. Allegations of bias and lack of professionalism swirled around its predecessors, the Independent Police Review Agency (IPRA), and its predecessor, the Office of Professional Standards. Regardless of the controversy surrounding a given case, there can never be any question about the independence and professionalism of the investigative agencies.

It should also not be forgotten that there is a significant financial cost to COPA’s lack of professionalism. Like the Consent Decree and the SAFE-T Act’s plethora of new mandates on police behavior and conduct, the anti-police bias in COPA’s decisions and rhetoric have improved prospects for criminals to not only get their cases overturned but to seek damages which is like — dare we say — winning the lottery. Since 2000, Chicago has paid nearly $700 million in 300 cases in which people claim police misconduct.

With the creation of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, it is time to consolidate and professionalize police oversight and bring fairness and speed to the investigations of police officers. We have a crowded kitchen with too many cooks whose responsibilities and authority overlap, bump into each other and have never been harmonized.  Ironically, the one internal body with oversight over the entire system, the Inspector General (IG), is seldom mentioned because it is something of a windowless room.

Compare it to Los Angeles where there is a one mayoral appointed Police Commission, within which there’s a Police Inspector General to conduct audit and program review and Los Angeles Police Department Internal Affairs that does police investigations. This system works. It is time to call for the Los Angeles model in which the Public Safety IG and Internal Affairs would operate under the Police Board where all investigations are consolidated and staffed by certified experienced investigators with police representation.

Justice must run in all directions — for all, yes, even for police.