Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley commemorated the graduation of 36 investigative and legal staff today in a ceremony for the first Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) Academy at Chicago State University on Friday, June 30th. COPA Academy, a six-week training program launched its first class in mid-May. This graduation is a major milestone and benchmark in helping COPA move forward and prepare for the agency’s inauguration on September 15, 2017.
“I want to congratulate the first class of graduates for completing COPA Academy and being a part of driving the agency’s pursuit of excellence,” said Chief Administrator Fairley. “This first class of graduates represents COPA’s commitment to deliver a new agency committed to quality and timely police misconduct investigations.”
The COPA Training Academy provides supervisors with 360 hours of training, major case specialists and attorneys with 320 hours and investigators with 280 hours of training on investigative processes, practices and principles. The hands-on-training is taught by subject matter experts and COPA senior leaders on a variety of subjects including implicit bias, complaint intake, procedural justice, investigative strategies and tactics and important legal concepts.
The Academy is designed to provide employee-centered, skills-based preparedness training that will ensure all COPA staff members are committed to performance excellence.
By launch day on September 15th, COPA will have nearly 80 investigative and legal new hires that have graduated from the Academy. COPA Academy’s second training class begins on July 31, 2017.