Craig Futterman: Delays in Releasing Police Misconduct Reports Diminishes Trust and Transparency

Police Oversight Ordinance Promised Transparency But Doesn’t Fully Deliver

When Chicago’s new police oversight agency opened in September, city officials pledged a different way of doing business: Misconduct investigations would be transparent and the public would learn the outcomes quickly.

But even as the fledgling agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA, makes more information available to the public, it also has taken a big step backward in one critical area.

Instead of making its reports public as soon as investigations are completed, as its predecessor did, COPA withholds the ones in which it found an officer at fault until the findings have been vetted by police officials and officers have been notified.

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University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, a frequent critic of the disciplinary process who has called for more transparency in misconduct investigations, said he sees no reason to wait to post COPA’s findings.

“The longer the delays, that diminishes trust and it diminishes transparency by not providing a prompt window into how the agency charged with investigating police misconduct is conducting its investigations,” he said.

Read more at ProPublica

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