COPA Commemorates its Official Launch on City’s South Side
Friday, September 15th the City’s new police oversight agency, COPA, celebrated its launch with an inaugural ceremony held at the South Shore Cultural Center where nearly 300 people convened. Elected officials, community leaders and COPA staff were all in attendance to commemorate this landmark event in the city.
In October of last year, City Council enacted an ordinance establishing the new Civilian Office of Police Accountability. Since the ordinance was enacted, COPA leadership has worked to build a new infrastructure for the agency’s operations that will support its mission to provide quality and timely police misconduct investigations.
“The agency that we are here to celebrate today is truly a new endeavor. Everything about the agency is new – from who we are, to what we do and how we do it.” said Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley at the event. “As an agency, we know that to build trust, we must demonstrate to the community and members of the Department that we are dedicated to integrity as we conduct neutral and fair police misconduct investigations.”
The agency is currently staffed with more than 120 employees. All investigators and attorneys have completed COPA Academy, a six-week civilian oversight training program.
COPA is officially accepting complaints and compliments about members of CPD. To learn more about COPA visit www.chicagocopa.org