Today, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) announces the launch of new datasets on the City of Chicago’s data portal, which marks the first time that Chicago has released detailed data about the complaints received by its police oversight agency. It is the most comprehensive dataset on police complaints released by a city that can be freely accessed or downloaded.
“This is the next step in COPA’s commitment to transparency. By giving the public access to our complaint data we are able to promote accountability about our work and the work of the Chicago Police Department,” said Interim Chief Patricia Banks.
The new datasets will allow users to find and analyze current and historical complaint data collected by COPA (and its predecessor, the Independent Police Review Authority). The public can freely download the data for their own analysis when accessing the portal, which will be updated once a week. COPA’s datasets can be accessed starting today through the City of Chicago’s data portal at https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/d/mft5-nfa8.
COPA opened September 15, 2017, and now accepts all complaints and compliments about members of CPD. To learn more about COPA visit www.chicagocopa.org.