The embattled chief of Chicago’s police oversight agency defended her handling of some of the department’s investigations into serious police misconduct as some alderpersons questioned the effectiveness of the agency.
Testifying Saturday at a City Council budget hearing, Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, addressed lawmakers’ concerns about public comments Kersten made about the fatal shooting by police of Deter Reed in March 2024.
Kersten is the subject of a recent whistleblower lawsuit filed by former COPA deputy chief administrator Matthew Haynam alleging he was wrongfully fired after raising alarms about bias and mismanagement within the agency.
The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges Kersten broke protocols after Reed was killed by officers when she made public comments that were “unsupported by actual evidence.” Reed was fatally shot March 21 after firing at the officers first during a traffic stop in Humboldt Park.
The lawsuit alleges Kersten claimed officers said they stopped Reed for a seat belt violation, but the comments were made during a time when the officers had not yet been interviewed by COPA or provided the agency with a reason for the stop.
Kersten then urged Police Supt. Larry Snelling to strip the cops of their policing powers in an April 1 memo, questioning whether the officers had lied about the reason for the stop.
Snelling later dismissed Kersten’s comments as “misleading at...
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