From @CHIdocumenters: “Chicago Police Board is an independent civilian body that oversees matters of Chi. Police Dept, mainly deciding disciplinary cases involving officers/members & nominating candidates for Police Superintendent. The nine board members are mayor-appointed.”

The meeting can be viewed live on cable at Channel 27 CAN TV, or on their website (link: https://cantv.org/watch-now/). It will also be on their Youtube (link: https://www.youtube.com/user/chicantv/videos).

After the meeting is finished, you can find its video, transcript, and community input report on this page as well as past meetings. Link: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cpb/provdrs/public_meetings.html

Here is the agenda/blue book for today’s meeting. Link: https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cpb/PubMtgMinutes/BlueBook06162022.pdf

**The meeting can actually be viewed at this link: http://www.cantv.org/live

Adam Gross is speaking on the new community commission for public safety and accountability, created by the city council in July of last summer. It is intended to be a new model for public safety and accountability.

There will be two bodies: a community commission that works city wide (systemic reform, seven members appointed by the mayor) and district councils based in neighborhoods across the city.

Gross claims this will help increase public support for police dept, improve interaction btwn residents and officers, and increase accountability. Gross talks about how they hope to increase community input through this.

Here is more background on Adam Gross, the executive director of the civilian-led police oversight panel. Gross is currently explaining COPA. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/1/10/22876742/chicago-police-civilian-oversight-commission-lightfoot-appoints-executive-director-adam-gross

Gross explains how the CPD, Civilian of Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and police board will have to agree on policy.

In terms of the district councils: “There will be three-member elected councils in each of the city’s 22 police districts.” (Suntimes) Gross adds that more staff will be hired to support this work, & they hope to have regular meetings thru these councils & allow community input.

Paula Wolff, Policy Advisor to the Illinois Justice Project, asks what policy these commissions would be making. Gross answers that it is anything the police are currently working on, such as the recent foot-chase policy that would be voted on by the commission.

This is the policy Gross referred to.
https://news.wttw.com/2022/02/10/chicago-police-revise-foot-pursuit-policy-after-criticism

The meeting moves into the next point, 5. Police disciplinary cases.

The board members vote 8-0 for the first officer’s demotion. The second officer covered has been found to misrepresent a car crash and the board members also vote 8-0 for the officer’s discipline.

Andrea Zopp, Deputy Mayor, Chief Neighborhood Development Officer, then covers the case of officers being suspended without pay for excessive force used/failure to intervene during protests.

Jorge Montes then covers how the Police
Superintendent disagreed with the Chief Administrator’s recommendations about suspending an officer without pay. Montes finds that the Superintendent gave insufficient reason for their claim.

Moving into the Superintendent of Police David Brown report, Brown talks about how two police officers were shot recently, but also the rate of shootings and homicides have been down this season.

Brown adds that the police have made substantial illegal gun arrests this year. Brown closes with CPD’s involvement in a recent community event on the west side.

Andrea Kersten, the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) reports on COPA’s statistics. Many reports were made to COPA and were primarily concerned with improper search procedures by police.

Kersten covers COPA’s involvement in the Latinx community as well as their work in CPS middle schools. COPA facilitated a mock investigation of police misconduct to help educate younger community members abt the process & prevent misinformation that may occur from media coverage.

Kersten then talks about the need for transparency & openness around cases & video releases. Kersten talks about two high-profile cases recently & when the Summary Reports of Investigation (SRI) should be released.

An SRI is a written summary report that outlines what COPA/an agency did to investigate police misconduct. Kersten discusses how COPA is expected to make the SRI reports public, but says that they are unable to do so until CPD reviews it first, & then it is reviewed by the Board.

Ultimately, the SRI reports cannot be published until the officer has been served/the recommendations for discipline have been already decided.

Kersten talks about recent cases as an example, and mentions Nikkita Brown and the excessive force Brown faced at North Avenue Beach. Kersten explains how its timeline for the report release is affected by the current lawsuit proceedings.

Here is more about Nikkita Brown’s case. Link:
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/chicago-woman-detained-by-cop-while-walking-dog-at-north-avenue-beach-files-lawsuit

The board then moves onto the final portion of questions and comments from the public. The first member of the public is Isaac Trorosco, a member of the youth council for police oversight(?) and he shares that the group had a recent meeting.

The group collaborates with UChicago Crime Lab and Trorosco encouraged more young people to join.

The next speaker was unable to come speak so the board moved to the third speaker, Krista Noel(?). Noel thanked the board for work on a recent case and then explained how they tried to get into contact with COPA for the review of a video.

The promised timeline was two weeks but it has not been completed and Noel asked for higher prioritization of the issue.

Noel then explained the consent decree, and refuted Gross’s previous claim about COPA’s jurisdiction over policy. Noel stated COPA would not be reviewing the foot pursuit decree as an order, if it is true that the commission is to not determine policy under consent decree.

More information about the consent decree can be found here. Link: http://chicagopoliceconsentdecree.org/about/

Noel’s final point is that these issues are Black led, & that “there is no new commission or consent decree without Black leadership.” It was first written by Black leadership & she wants to see more Black faces. She does not understand why there is a “truckload” of white leaders

Noel conclues with how she wants Black and Brown faces and leaders, when they have been the ones behind such change.

Ghian Foreman, Chicago Police Board President, says that they do not yet have the answers & agrees that there is a balance in how a case needs to brought to light in a timely manner. Foreman admits they are yet not capable/need more help to do this.

Kersten also echoes these sentiments.

The final member of the public talks passionately about the recent police officer deaths, calls it “vigilantism,” and tangentially connects it to COVID-19 as a farce.

That ends the public comments and the board members agree to move forward. The meeting is adjourned at 8:17 PM.

Again, the next CPD board meeting will be on Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 PM.

View the rest of our coverage on this meeting here: https://chicago.documenters.org/assignments/police-board-4039/

And follow @CHIdocumenters for more coverage on Chicago’s local government!

Additionally, here is the livetweet thread from the previous CPD Board meeting on May 26.

https://twitter.com/zoepharo/status/1529981139770920977?s=20&t=aL-GIhp_98Lsz6IH2eRQZQ