Tension building between COPA and civilian police oversight panel
Political tensions are building between the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and a panel of everyday Chicagoans charged with overseeing the Chicago Police Department.
The latest source of contention centers around a Freedom of Information request filed by former COPA chief Sharon Fairley.
That request was filed just hours after the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability made an extraordinary request for Chicago’s inspector general Deborah Witzburg to investigate the “quality and integrity” of COPA investigations under current COPA chief Andrea Kersten.
Fairley specifically asked for “documents, communications materials and records related to the quality and integrity of COPA investigations and retaliation against COPA employees that form of the basis” of the request for Witzburg to investigate.
And, she is seeking all email communications between any current or former COPA employees and Anthony Driver, president of the community commission.
Fairley also asked for all email communications between Driver and CPD Supt. Larry Snelling from Jan. 1 through July 16 of this year that:
• Relate to operation of CPD, COPA, the community commission, the office of the inspector general and the Chicago Police Board.
• Mention any current COPA employee or anyone who has worked for the agency within the last three years.
Fairley is hardly an unbiased observer. As COPA chief, Fairley hired and promoted Kersten and defends her integrity to this day. But Fairley flatly denied Friday that she is doing Kersten’s bidding by seeking information that could either clear Kersten of allegations that COPA’s investigations are biased or that could intimidate current and former employees who have accused Kersten of anti-police bias.
Now a University of Chicago law professor, Fairley said she requested the information as part of her academic research on the effectiveness of civilian police oversight.
“When there are challenges in how civilian oversight operates, those are things I want to learn about,” Fairley told the Sun-Times.
“My request is not in any way to imply that I think there’s anything nefarious going on between anybody. I was just trying to find information to understand the nature of these allegations. … Neutrality is really important when it comes to civilian oversight. It’s really important that COPA not be seen as favoring one side or the other. That’s all I’m trying to understand.”
Fairley stressed that she does not believe “anybody is in cahoots with anybody.” She's seeking emails between Driver and Snelling simply because the superintendent has been openly critical of Kersten.
“I’m asking to see if there’s anything specific that’s being said. That’s all. I’m just trying to get more specifics about what the allegations are. Honestly, I’m not trying to accuse anybody. I’m not working for anybody. I’m not working on anybody’s behalf. I’m really only trying to study civilian oversight and how it’s working in Chicago, which is something that I’ve been doing for five years,” Fairley said.
Driver refused to speculate on Fairley’s motives for a request that includes his communications with Snelling. But, he added, it was “not helpful to release information that could possibly put people in jeopardy. … People have to be comfortable in our city coming forward. … This undermines that. ”
The request for an investigation "has nothing to do with Superintendent Larry Snelling. He was completely in the dark about this happening," Driver added.
"I did give him a courtesy heads up about two or three hours before we took the vote" to request the probe. "That’s the extent of the knowledge he had about it," Driver said. The commission offered similar notice to Kersten, he added.
“It’s a ridiculous accusation if people are saying that I’m doing this to be in bed with Larry Snelling. … Government only works when it’s done in the light of day. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re simply asking for the city’s watchdog, the inspector general, to do some fact finding and help us do our job of oversight better.”
Snelling has repeatedly slammed Kersten’s handling of the investigation into the deadly police shootout involving Dexter Reed, who was killed in a hail of bullets in March after wounding a tactical officer.
Snelling’s beef initially centered around COPA’s decision to publicly release a letter from Kersten asking the superintendent to relieve the officers involved in the shooting of their policing powers. In the letter, Kersten questioned whether the officers had lied about the reason for the traffic stop that led to the gunfight.
The feud boiled over at a Chicago Police Board meeting in April, when Snelling criticized Kersten’s account of the shooting as “misleading at best.”
“I’ve made no statements about it because I don’t want to poison the well when it comes to this shooting,” Snelling said, adding that COPA “doesn’t exist to create a bias.” Any possible impropriety, Snelling warned, “jeopardizes the integrity of that investigation.”
The inspector general’s office is reviewing materials that led to the CCPSA’s request without committing to a full-blown investigation.
Contributing: Tom Schuba