On July 2, 2018 at approximately 10:00PM the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) was notified of an officer involved shooting. Early reports indicate an officer, upon leaving a store near 7900 S. Yates, was confronted by a civilian with a weapon. The officer discharged his weapon once. The civilian, was struck in the chest and transported …
COPA Partners with Michele Clark Magnet High School
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) partnered with Michele Clark Academic Prep Magnet High School March 14-16, 2018 on Chicago’s west side. Nearly 80 freshman and seniors from Civics and World Studies classes participated alongside their teachers to learn about COPA as an agency, its role in police accountability and meet staff. Sessions focused …
COPA Looking Ahead to 2018
Before COPA closes out the year, I would like to take this time to reflect upon 2017 and review what’s next in 2018. As a recently retired judge with over 45 years of legal experience, I dedicated my work to improve access to justice for the residents of Cook County. This included establishing a division within …
COPA Adds More Transparency with Police Complaint Data
by Tom Schenk Jr. (Guest Blogger) Chief Data Officer for the City of Chicago The newly-formed Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) published detailed complaint data on the City of Chicago Data Portal. The new datasets include the nature of the complaint, the time of the complaint, status and any findings as a result of …
Event Recap: COPA Partnered with FBI Chicago for the First Citizens Education & Training Exercise on Use of Force
On October 12, 2017 COPA partnered with the FBI (Chicago Division) for the first Citizens Education & Training Exercise on Use of Force. The event, held at FBI Headquarters, was attended by community leaders, faith based leaders, educators, law enforcement officials and concerned civilians of the city of Chicago. This training provided an overview of …
On this day in history….
On October 5, 2016, the City Council passed an ordinance that created Chicago’s newest agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) after months of public outcry over what was largely seen as an ineffective police accountability infrastructure. From that day forward, the leadership of COPA set out to create a best-in-class civilian oversight agency …
One big step for city government… and a giant leap for police accountability.
I am so excited today! This milestone has been over a year in the making. Our leadership team started working on plans for building the new agency as soon as the Police Accountability Task Force recommended, and Mayor Emanuel agreed, that the City needed to create a completely new civilian oversight agency in order to …