To bring fairness to CPD accountability, COPA should be cast on the top of an ash heap, and CPD's endless oversight panels integrated under one board
Critics of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) should be madly celebrating the fact two high-ranking officials with the police oversight agency were abruptly fired last Friday. The dismissals came only days after one of the men shown the door had lodged a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), imputing the office with a bias against Chicago Police (CPD). The action gives us a clear view into how Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten manages the agency; the firings leave no doubt of Ms. Kersten’s personal animus with CPD and how she has created an atmosphere at COPA that allows an anti-police bias to flourish. The firings also expose the political nature and incompetence of the agency.
Ms. Kersten should be fired and COPA itself should be abolished as part of a long overdue consolation and professionalization of the multiple lawyers of police oversight. It should be crystal clear by now that Ms. Kersten is hopelessly biased against the Chicago Police Department. The most recent in a series of missteps that has marked her term as Chief Administrator of the troubled agency, Kersten gained notoriety for publishing a report recommending the suspension of Officer Ella French, though French had been slain in the line of duty months before the official review was released to the public.
A chronic blunderer, Kersten has continued the crusade to terminate and deny benefits to Officer Eric Stillman, a respected police officer and Afghanistan War veteran, for his role in the tragic shooting of Latin King gang member, Adam Toledo. Months before Kersten’s botched handling of the French suspension, in March 2021, a ShotSpotter alert drew CPD to 2400 block of South Christiana in the Little Village neighborhood. Confronted by Stillman and his partner, Toledo fled from police while wielding a gun used to shoot at automobiles on Kedzie Avenue. Toledo was shot by Stillman after the apprentice gang member refused countless lawful orders to end his attempted escape and drop his weapon. Despite being cleared by then-CPD Superintendent David Brown and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx declining to bring charges against Stillman, Kersten has stubbornly continued to lead a campaign to oust Stillman from CPD.
Recall the more recent outrage when Kersten officially and publicly insinuated that officers involved in the March 21 police-involved shooting of Dexter Reed lacked credibility about the basis for the traffic stop that Reed escalated into a shootout by opening fire — eleven shots — at responding officers. Indeed, Kersten did so in writing to Superintendent Larry Snelling, in a letter that suspiciously found its way into the hands of the Sun-Times ahead of COPA releasing body-worn camera video of the incident.
Following her poor performance in the initial stages of the Reed probe, Kersten made several appearances in public or on news programs — an address at the City Club and an appearance on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight — to discuss the case. In an unsettling display of poor judgment, Kersten appeared in a lengthy interview with ESPN host Stephen A. Smith. Kersten’s appearances with media took place prior to COPA investigators interviewing the officers who responded to the scene of the shooting, including the officer who had been shot and seriously wounded by Reed.
At a moment calling for calm — as was deftly achieved in a joint statement from Mayor Johnson and Superintendent Larry Snelling — Kersten irresponsibly and unprofessionally went on a barnstorming, narrative-building media tour that threw oxygen on a smoldering fire. As the saying goes, a fish rots from the head.
As goes Kersten, so goes the agency she leads. Her conduct this week reminds us again of a fundamental problem that she and most COPA appointees have: A clear bias against police officers. Kersten’s shortcomings as the Chief Administrator of COPA are not limited to bias against CPD. Moreover, Kersten has too often demonstrated a dangerous lack of knowledge and understanding of what it is to be a police officer, and a clear lack of training. Kersten should resign or be fired.
Before any discussion of replacing Kersten with a more qualified COPA administrator takes place, it would be more productive for Chicago to consider the three city entities specifically charged with CPD oversight, BIA, COPA and the Police Board, be consolidated into a single, professional oversight body. There are ample reasons to merge the three oversight bodies into one commission. 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 the proactive policing needed to deal with the surge of crime, as officers fear being punished and unsupported.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) report points to a lack of consistency and fairness by which discipline of Chicago Police Department (CPD) members is reviewed and recommended. The OIG concluded agencies charged with investigating CPD members do not operate with sufficient guidance and controls to ensure procedural fairness and consistency.
An allegation that a CPD member has committed misconduct is usually investigated by CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). The OIG found that neither BIA and COPA’s policies “contain clear and actionable guidance on how investigators should weigh aggravating and mitigating factors in reaching disciplinary recommendations. Updates to BIA and COPA’s policies may still be inadequate to ensure consistency and fairness. The Police Board lacks formal policies to consistently and fairly determine discipline for cases it considers.”
The lack of credible training for COPA investigators is a well-documented problem and illustrated on COPA’s own website link at Organizational Development – Civilian Office of Police Accountability. For example: COPA employees are supposed to be investigating Chicago Police officers for a variety of offenses related to use of force, yet the IG’s report 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 CPD not trained and certified in the same categories as police officers? Those promoted into COPA leadership positions seem to have been selected for reasons other than proven competence and expertise. Little wonder the OIG reports a 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 Authority (IPRA), and its forerunner, 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.
With the creation of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), it is time to consolidate and professionalize police oversight and bring fairness and speed to the investigations of police officers. Eliminate COPA and consolidate police oversight (COPA, Police Board, BIA) under one board, staffed by certified investigators with investigatory expertise and police representation. Former IG Joe Ferguson said it best: “Justice must run in all directions — for all," yes, even for Chicago's police officers.
Paul G. Vallas is CEO of The McKenzie Foundation and a policy advisor at the Illinois Policy Institute. Mr. Vallas ran for mayor of Chicago in 2023 and previously served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
