Editorial: COPA leader needs to better build public confidence in Dexter Reed police investigation

The chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct and recommending disciplinary measures, had functioned in relative obscurity until the police shooting of Dexter Reed. But since the April 9 release of video detailing the awful scene in Humboldt Park on March 21 that started when a five-member police tactical force stopped Reed in his car and ended with a cop shot and wounded and Reed’s shooting death, Andrea Kersten seemingly has been everywhere.

First, she appeared at the City Club of Chicago, in an event scheduled on the very day COPA chose to make the videos public. Then on to WTTW later that night. The next day, April 10, Kersten was discussing the videos and what her agency was probing on CBS 2 and on WGN radio. On April 11, she opted to appear on the YouTube podcast hosted by ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, known for his spicy takes (but usually on sports). CNN followed on April 13.

You’ll notice that Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling aren’t all over your airwaves discussing this case. Johnson appeared with Kersten at a news conference the day the videos were released. Snelling discussed the matter briefly on April 8, the day before the videos came out. Both Snelling and Johnson were appropriately brief, acknowledged the horrifying nature of the incident, and then essentially said the matter was under investigation and they would allow that to play out.

Kersten, meanwhile, has felt free to discuss the substance of a probe still in its early stages. That includes COPA’s suspicion that the officers lied when they said they stopped Reed for failing to wear a seat belt. In addition, she has spoken repeatedly about the 96 shots fired by the cops and emphasized state law requiring police responses, even when they’re shot at first (as they were in this case), to be proportional.

While Kersten has been careful throughout to emphasize the probe is ongoing, which is good, this media barnstorming risks giving the public the impression that COPA is leaning toward recommending discipline for some or all of the officers involved. Headlines that have followed her interviews have blared out the “96 shots in 41 seconds” and COPA’s implied view that the cops may be dissembling.

Helpfully, COPA and Kersten also have said from the outset that evidence shows Reed fired first. It’s impossible to know for sure, but the timely disclosure of that critical fact may be why we didn’t see more unrest following public release of the videos.

Nonetheless, the Andrea Kersten Show has been unsettling given that she runs the agency charged with investigating all police-involved shootings, as well as complaints of police misconduct. It goes without saying that this troubling incident is highly sensitive. Its ultimate resolution, which isn’t likely until early next year, could create yet another fraught moment for Chicago.

Intended or not, Kersten has given the impression that these officers did something — or many things — wrong. Members of the public viewing those videos are free, of course, to voice those opinions. But the person leading the first step of the official reckoning shouldn’t be doing so.

Why? Among other reasons, she risks undermining the impartiality of whatever COPA eventually recommends, particularly if the agency proposes harsh disciplinary consequences for the officers. With these repeated public airings, she also risks sending the message, intended or not, to her staff that she expects a result along those lines.

And, finally, preliminary release of internal questions — Were the officers lying? Was the volume of shots from police “proportional”? — provides fodder for the lawsuit against the city likely to come from Reed’s family, possibly before COPA’s full report is completed.

Snelling, who’s been at odds with Kersten previous to the Dexter Reed shooting, finally called her out on Friday, accusing her agency of acting “irresponsibly.” “Nothing, or no one, should be judged in the court of public opinion,” he said. He emphasized that COPA hasn’t even interviewed the officers yet, an obvious point of fairness. He’s right, of course.

Civilian authority over police matters is a struggle that’s been ongoing for decades in Chicago. For much of that period, there were too many instances in which stark police misconduct was swept under the rug. That all changed after the 2014 police murder of Laquan McDonald, the event that led to the consent decree now governing many aspects of the Police Department’s operations. COPA is a relatively young agency and isn’t technically under the mayor’s control anymore (which is why he should not have been standing next to Kersten at a news briefing). One good question: What’s the recourse if the public loses confidence in COPA’s leadership?

It wouldn’t be a good thing to return to the days when cops could behave badly without accountability. But Kersten is doing her agency — and the philosophy that Chicagoans should have a say in how they’re policed beyond electing a mayor — no favors with this unorthodox display.

Kersten deserves praise for her agency’s timely release of the videos in the death of Dexter Reed and her disclosure of the critically important context that Reed shot first at police. Beyond that, she needed just to say that determining who shot first was far from the sum total of her agency’s investigation and that COPA would probe all aspects of the incident, including the justification for stopping Reed.

By all means, educate Chicagoans by offering information on what COPA does and how it goes about its work. But Kersten now should stay away from substantive aspects of this ongoing case.

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