Rift exposed between Chicago Police accountability agencies over shooting that killed Dexter Reed
After the release of a videotape showing the shooting by a Chicago Police officer that killed Laquan McDonald, police accountability took center stage in Chicago.
Two organizations emerged — COPA, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, and CCPSA, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.
Now, for the first time, CBS News Chicago is learning of deep friction between the two. Newly-released documents show how that tension, once kept behind closed doors, has boiled over.
On March 21, 2024, Dexter Reed opened fire on five plainclothes Chicago Police officers after being pulled over in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Officers then returned fire — shooting Reed's vehicle 96 times in 41 seconds, an investigation determined.
Six weeks after the incident, then-Chief COPA Administrator Andrea Kersten questioned the officers' story — that the initial pullover was the result of a seat belt violation. Reed's tinted windows gave her pause.
"There may be other interviews that have to occur as well to understand what brought the officers to performing traffic stops as tactical officers in the 11th District," Kersten said in April of last year.
Despite the Chicago Department of Law eventually agreeing with Kersten's assessment questioning why the officers stopped Reed — leading to a recommended settlement for $1.25 million with Reed's family. But the agency that has the power to fire Kersten, the CCPSA, pointed to that moment as part of the reason they were going to let her go.
The details were revealed in a once-confidential document obtained by CBS News Chicago.
"You made public statements that questioned whether police officers involved in the case had been truthful, based on what you described as 'preliminary facts' that had not been clearly established and were not easily ascertainable in the video footage that COPA released," CCPSA wrote to Kersten. "The subsequent media tour that followed the video's release called into question COPA's judgement and impartiality."
Kersten countered: "My public statements made in the Dexter Reed case, one of the most critical shooting investigations in Chicago history, were fully accurate… that it was unrealistic that officers could have observed a seatbelt violation of Reed as a basis for the stop…. COPA's narrative of this incident has withstood public scrutiny and subsequent review by the City's Department of Law."
About its vote of no confidence, Kersten wrote, "CCPSA's process was inherently unfair, failed to afford me adequate due process and lacked any objective investigation."
In the end, Kersten resigned before termination could occur. The CCPSA is now searching for her replacement, and Mayor Brandon Johnson will be part of the search.
CBS News Chicago asked him about the friction between the two sides.
"Work to be done, but I feel confident that we're going to get to a point with absolute not just accountability, but constitutional policing that we can all be proud of," the mayor said.
The four officers who shot Reed were placed on administrative duty after the shooting, but police Supt. Larry Snelling rejected Kersten's request that they also be relieved of their police powers until the investigation was complete.
Meanwhile nearly a year after the incident, the settlement with Reed's family is now in limbo. At the last minute last month, the City Council scrapped a vote to approve it.
