Currently waiting for the livestream to become available.

Some items on tonight’s agenda include hearing police disciplinary cases, appeals from disqualified police officer applicants, and a report from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

We’re live now.

The Chicago Police Board is speaking to the fact that a group of applicants (to become police officers) were denied due to the findings after a background check.

The Board moves to uphold their disqualification as final.

This past fall, a report from the @chicagotribune told the story of a disqualified CPD applicant Kaneacha Davis.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-police-diversity-hiring-20210907-n66oh2qsqnepletmxliiweczlm-story.html

Now the Board is on to addressing carjackings in the city.

This year, we’ve seen 287 carjackings across the city, down 12% since this time last year according to First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter.

Related: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-lightfoot-brown-community-safety-update-20220207-bhfwbhlomndcjppmj3ydu4vrsm-story.html

First Deputy Carter also speaks to the increase in retail theft across the City, saying CPD is working closely with the Illinois Attorney General to prosecute high level thieves, and calls retail theft a “public safety issue”.

Now the Board is speaking to the appointment of Andrea Kersten as the new head of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

She’s not available for the meeting tonight, but Jay Westensee, Deputy Chief Administrator is reporting COPAs report for January.

In January COPA:
- Received 365 complaints, 103 of which were investigated by COPA.
- 61% of complaints were regarding improper search and seizure by officers.
- 4 officer involved shooting incidents

Westensee also announces a new transparency unit within COPA that will create 8 new positions, one of which involves being dedicated to handling FOIA requests that COPA receives.

Chicago Police Board President Ghian Foreman is now presenting on the community engagement that Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, where he is President and CEO, has achieved through a $25M project called Terra Firma. https://t.co/mIwhiyoiJs

“It’s not just on CPD to solve issues of public safety— it’s on all of us,” says Foreman of the project.

The project aims to target vacant lots and areas across the city and beautify them, with the hopes of reduces violent crime.

Foreman says there is a correlation between neighborhoods with vacant lots and neighborhoods with high rates of violent crime. https://t.co/04uUIOXFXh

One of the major source of funds for this initiative thus far as come from state marijuana taxes.

Here are some recaps from the past year of the project. https://t.co/8mi7pvPnbh

Now on to public comment:

• One commenter is addressing concern of those who have died in the custody of CPD and the lack of transparency surrounding those deaths

Specifically: Irene Chavez

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wbez.org/amp/stories/family-of-woman-found-dead-in-cpd-cell-sues-chicago/bf736d0f-6c1e-4a63-bfd5-208afe17ed1d

No more public comment.

Meeting is adjourned at 8:11 PM.

Thanks for following along and follow @CHIdocumenters for more public meeting dates and information.

Signing off 🖊