Chicago police oversight chief defends handling of investigations amid whistleblower lawsuits

The embattled chief of Chicago's police oversight agency defended her handling of some of the department's investigations into serious police misconduct as some alderpersons questioned the effectiveness of the agency.

Testifying Saturday at a City Council budget hearing, Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, addressed lawmakers' concerns about public comments Kersten made about the fatal shooting by police of Deter Reed in March 2024.

Kersten is the subject of a recent whistleblower lawsuit filed by former COPA deputy chief administrator Matthew Haynam alleging he was wrongfully fired after raising alarms about bias and mismanagement within the agency.

The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges Kersten broke protocols after Reed was killed by officers when she made public comments that were "unsupported by actual evidence." Reed was fatally shot March 21 after firing at the officers first during a traffic stop in Humboldt Park.

The lawsuit alleges Kersten claimed officers said they stopped Reed for a seat belt violation, but the comments were made during a time when the officers had not yet been interviewed by COPA or provided the agency with a reason for the stop.

Kersten then urged Police Supt. Larry Snelling to strip the cops of their policing powers in an April 1 memo, questioning whether the officers had lied about the reason for the stop.

Snelling later dismissed Kersten's comments as "misleading at best" and accused her office of "framing the mind of the people ahead of the video's release."

When pressed on her comments by Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), who chairs the Committee on Budget and Government Operations, Kersten defended herself, saying she got the information about the potential seat belt violation from the Chicago Police Department during COPA's preliminary investigation the night of the shooting.

Additionally, Kersten made the comments only after the videos of the shooting were obligated to have been released and "in the absense of any leader willing to come out and say 'here's the process [and] here's what we know now,'" she said.

"There was no legal public record [that we determined Reed fired first] had I not been willing to say it," Kersten said. "And the reason I was willing to say it, even in the preliminary investigation, was because of the concern for not having information to accompany those videos."

The lawsuit marks the latest controversy surrounding COPA, following a separate lawsuit filed by the Fraternal Order of Police alleging the agency conducted "biased and unfair investigations."

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has also raised concerns about COPA, asking Inspector General Deborah Witzburg's office to look into "the quality and integrity" of the agency's investigations and allegations of whistleblower retaliation.

Kersten's agency has a proposed $15 million budget for 2025.

Kersten defended COPA from suggestions of bias during Saturday's budget hearing, saying the agency has closed more than 1,100 cases this year with just 28% of those resulting in sustained allegations against the officers.

"It is the minority of cases that result in potential separation recommendations, and those are the ones that are most likely to be picked up on by the media and projected in a manner that tries to portray the work of our agency differently than what it actually is," Kersten said.

Also during Saturday's budget hearings, Witzburg doubled down on her recommendation that the city needs a task force to address police officers with extremist ties.

The inspector general's office sent a letter to the mayor’s office in July recommending a "whole-of-government" commission to address the issue, but the mayor's office refused to commit to any sort of action, Witzburg said.

"The response from the mayor's office continued to articulate a commitment to dealing with this issue, but declined to implement the task force recommendation and did not commit to any other action," Witzburg said.