FAQs

The City of Chicago had generally followed a policy of not releasing any evidence pertaining to a police-involved incident while an investigation of the incident by any entity – COPA, CPD, the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney, or the United States Attorney – was still ongoing.

It has become clear that the previous policy did not recognize the public’s need for timely information about these important incidents. The video release policy is intended to promote transparency for the public while also minimizing potential disruption to any ongoing criminal or administrative investigation.

The City of Chicago’s video release policy applies to the following types of incidents, each of which fall within COPA’s investigatory jurisdiction:

• officer-involved shootings
• officer-involved taser use that results in death or great bodily harm
• incidents of death or great bodily harm (other than self-inflicted harm) that occur in police custody

Pursuant to the policy, evidentiary materials obtained by COPA in connection with pending investigations will be released within 60 days and will include the following:

1. Video:
   1. Dashboard cameras
   2. POD video
   3. Body-cam video
   4. Lockup cam footage, and
   5. Third-party footage obtained by COPA (such as cellphone footage; CTA video footage, security camera footage obtained from private businesses, etc.)
2. Audio:
   1. 911 calls
   2. OEMC dispatch recordings
   3. CPD radio calls, and
   4. Third-party audio
3. Police Reports
   1. Arrest Reports
   2. Original Case Incident Reports
   3. Officer’s Battery Reports, and
   4. Tactical Response Reports

According to the PATF’s definition, for the purpose of the transparency policy, great bodily harm includes any injury that is serious enough to require treatment in a hospital or a medical facility located in a correctional institution.

The video release policy promulgated by the PATF only requires the release of evidence related to the incidents described above. Any incidents that do not fall within the scope of the video release policy, but reflect other uses of force by a member of the Chicago Police Department that may be of great public interest, will be posted under the “Other Use of Force” category on the website.

Evidence will be released within 60 days of the incident or the date COPA was notified of the incident (if later). COPA and other law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies may submit a written request to obtain a one-time extension of 30 days, if public release of the evidence would impede an open investigation.

Yes. Pursuant to the video release policy, to the extent that COPA has the information to do so, COPA will send a letter and attempt to place phone calls to individuals who have been identified as involved in the incident to inform them that evidence will be publicly released on the website. In the event that the subject is deceased, COPA will provide the notification to the subject’s family or legal representative, if known to COPA.  For cases in which a video recording scheduled for release on the website depicts the incident that is the subject of COPA’s investigation, COPA will offer that individual (or their family or legal representative) an opportunity to view the video and related evidence prior to its release.

No. The video release policy requires the release of materials in COPA’s possession related to any of the incident categories listed above. Often, many officers will be on the scene of an incident, and additional officers may submit reports relating to the incident. Appearing in materials released on the website does not mean that the officer is under investigation.

The video release policy was adopted to serve the public interest by promptly releasing material related to certain kinds of incidents. The policy operates separately from the underlying investigation and adjudication process.

The video release policy requires release of materials within 60 days of the incident. In many cases, misconduct investigations will not be complete prior to the release of materials pursuant to the video release policy.  The fact that materials relating to an incident have been released on the website does not mean that a determination has been made regarding the conduct of an officer depicted in the materials.

The materials released on the case portal include recordings from a variety of sources, such as dashboard cameras, POD cameras, CTA security cameras, as well as security cameras operated by private businesses. The varied quality and clarity of the videos on the case portal reflect the varying quality and clarity of the recording devices and systems from which the videos are obtained.

The speed of your internet connection will determine how quickly the video loads on the case portal.  All video on the case portal is played through COPA’s Vimeo account.  For information on the optimal internet speeds for watching video on the case portal, please click here.

In some cases, no video material exists. In other cases, dashboard cameras or other video sources like surveillance cameras may capture events leading up to an incident, or its aftermath, but not the incident itself.

In order to protect the privacy, and potentially the safety, of bystanders, witnesses and other individuals not involved in the incident, personal identifying information about those people, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, and other information that would reveal their identity, has been redacted.  In addition, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, license plates numbers, vehicle identification numbers, phone numbers and employee numbers of all individuals listed in the records, as well as police computer login numbers has been redacted.  Finally, personal health information has been redacted and certain 911 calls have been withheld pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”).  If a 911 call related to a case on the case portal has been withheld, pursuant to HIPAA, it has been indicated.

There are a few reasons why an incident might not appear on the case portal:

• The incident involves a juvenile: Evidence for incidents involving juveniles will not be released on the case portal, pursuant to the Illinois Juvenile Court Act, 705 ILCS 405/1-1, et seq., which prohibits the City from releasing law enforcement records that relate to a minor who has been investigated, arrested, or taken into custody before his or her 18^thbirthday, without a court order
• The incident is recent and evidence has not yet been released, the incident may still be within the 60-day release window, or may be subject to a one-time 30 day extension as a result of a written request received from a law enforcement agency.
• The case involves an incident for which a COPA investigation was completed and closed prior to the creation of the video release policy.
• The incident is not one of the types of incidents covered by the policy.
• The incident does not fall within COPA’s investigatory jurisdiction.

If you believe that you know of an incident that falls under the policy, is not subject to the juvenile exception, and is not on the website, you may contact COPA-PublicAffairs@chicagocopa.org with additional questions or for more information.

• Use the search options on the left to find specific cases by Log # or date.
• Click on one of the Incident Types to filter all cases that involve that type, even if it is not the primary nature of the investigation. For example, an allegation of excessive force during a search warrant that results in an allegedly false arrest will display for Excessive Force, Improper Search & Seizure – Fourth Amendment Violation, and Search Warrant.
• Click each column of the list to sort by date or district of occurrence. Dates are added to each column as the case progresses. If you see a date for Transparency Release date but no Closed Date, that means COPA’s investigation into the incident is ongoing. If there is a blank spot in the Transparency Release Date, the case did not qualify for a VRP release. The Closed Date is the date COPA completed its investigation. The FSR/Memo Posted Date is the date the report was added to this portal. If there is a Closed Date but no FSR/Memo Posted Date, that means the report has not yet reached the post-COPA status needed for it to be posted. For more information about the status of a particular investigation, please visit the City’s Data Portal.

COPA publishes its data in two places. Pre-set graphs and charts depicting the agency’s monthly caseload can be found in Data Dashboards. The raw complaint data, including investigation status, for all investigations from 2007 to present can be found by visiting the Data Portal. This links directly to the City of Chicago’s data portal – an open data platform.

COPA is committed to transparency. This includes providing the public with information about its investigative operations and trends found within the complaint data that it collects.

When COPA receives a civilian complaint or a notification from the Chicago Police Department, information about the incident is entered into the agency’s current case management system. As more information about each incident is added to the case management system, including status updates, investigative outcomes and disciplinary recommendations, corresponding changes will be reflected in the data seen on COPA’s website.

The data featured on COPA’s Data Dashboards are updated monthly, shortly after the first of each month.

COPA’s dataset featured on the City of Chicago’s Data Portal is updated weekly. However, in order to publish the most accurate complaint data, information uploaded to the City’s Data Portal is delayed by up to three weeks from the original complaint date.

Broadly speaking, the COPA Data Dashboards are organized by the major milestones of an investigation:

• Complaint intake
• Investigative review (i.e. the time in which the investigation is pending), and
• Conclusion of an investigation.

We encourage you to also review the following resources on our website to better understand the data presented on the Data Dashboards:

• A full description of the Investigative Process
• COPA’s Annual and Quarterly Reports
• COPA’s Ordinance and Rules & Regulations

We aim to provide context to some of our very basic metrics. Some COPA investigations require more resources than others, and as such a more descriptive view of the data can be useful. For example, COPA’s oldest investigations, such as officer-involved shootings, tend to be complex as more steps are typically involved to reach an investigative outcome.

We also aim to provide accurate comparisons of the data over time: some data may be compared month-over-month, and some data may be compared through similar points in time (such as “Last Month,” “Year-to-Date,” and “Rolling 12-Month” views).

COPA publishes information, including media files, for certain investigations on our website. You can find information about individual investigations by visiting:

• Summary Reports (including how to read a Summary Report of Investigation)
• Data Portal (for primary data collected on individual investigations)
• Case Portal
• Legacy Summary Reports (for investigations concluded under IPRA)
• Legacy Sustained Case Reports (for investigations concluded under IPRA)

A complaint is a notice filed by a civilian alleging that an act of police misconduct occurred. By statute, COPA also receives notifications directly from the Chicago Police Department when the following events occur:

• Firearm discharges
• Taser discharges
• Incidents in lock-up
• Motor vehicle accident involving a death

To access the City’s Data Portal, visit our “Data Portal” page and click “Access City of Chicago Data Portal”.

Once on the City’s open data portal, you’ll land on the “COPA Cases – Summary” dataset page. You may also navigate to the “COPA Cases – By Complainant or Subject” and “COPA Cases – By Involved Officer” datasets under “Featured Content Using this Data.”

To explore the data, look to the upper right of the page and click on “View Data.” Alternatively, you may visualize the data through the Data Portal’s built in graphics and charts by clicking on the “Visualize” tab.  Advanced users who would like to download the data to analyze in their preferred data analysis tool can access the dataset under the “Export” or “API” tabs.

More information about COPA’s dataset, including metadata and column meanings, can be found on the dataset landing page. The City of Chicago also has several tutorials on how to use its open data portal.

There is no difference in the content across the three datasets, only in how the data is organized.

“COPA Cases – Summary” contains all available fields in a format such that one row is equal to one investigation. In investigations where there are multiple officers or subjects, each officer or subject is separated in respective order by a “ | “ symbol. This dataset is ideal for users who want to look up the details of a certain investigation. It is also ideal for analyzing, summarizing or visualizing basic complaint data.

“COPA Cases – By Complainant or Subject” contains basic complaint data and subject data in a format such that one row is equal to one subject. Basic complaint data may be duplicated if there are multiple subjects. This dataset is ideal for advanced data users, and users who want to accurately analyze, summarize or visualize COPA’s complaint data based on the subjects involved in the investigation.

“COPA Cases – By Involved Officer” contains basic complaint data and officer data in a format such that one row is equal to one officer. Basic complaint data may be duplicated if there are multiple officers. This dataset is ideal for advanced data users, and users who want to accurately analyze, summarize or visualize COPA’s complaint data based on the officer involved in the investigation.

If you are seeking to join datasets, you can do so using the “Log Number” field.

In accordance with the collective bargaining agreements set forth by the police unions and the City of Chicago, COPA cannot release personally identifying details about officers unless there is a legal request for such data (e.g., a Freedom of Information Act request, a discovery request for pending criminal or civil matters, etc.). However, we believe it is important for the public to be able to identify trends based on broad demographic data, and have made available involved officer race, age range, and range of years on the force.

If a log number is not available on the Data Portal, it either means that the case is too new to be displayed on the Data Portal, or it is a confidential Bureau of Internal Affairs investigation. It can take between two and three weeks from the date a complaint is made for an investigation to appear if it is not confidential. There is a delay on displaying new investigations on the portal so that we publish the most accurate data possible.

The COPA Data Dashboards and the COPA dataset on the City of Chicago’s Data Portal are not updated at the exact same rate, which may lead to slight differences. The Data Dashboards are updated just after the first of each month. The COPA dataset on the City’s open data portal is updated weekly, meaning that it reflects the most updated information on the agency’s complaint data.

Please use the “Help/Accessibility” form available on the COPA website to tell us about the issue you are experiencing.

It is a community-police pilot mediation program consistent with the City of Chicago’s Consent Decree.  The 6-month pilot program will provide for voluntary mediation of selected complaints against Chicago Police Department (CPD) members.  The mediation will be a confidential process in which the complainant(s) and accused CPD member(s) meet and, with the assistance of a neutral mediator, discuss the alleged misconduct with the goal of arriving at a mutually agreeable resolution.   Successful mediation will be a process in which the parties have heard, clarified, and understood the issues and each other’s point of view.  The mediation may or may not result in an agreement.  The participants are not required to reach a formal resolution.

The Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR)

Yes, the program is City-wide.

COPA’s role in the pilot program is to screen eligible complaints, notify the parties when their complaint is eligible for mediation, refer to CCR for mediation, and close complaints upon completed mediation.

The following complaints are eligible for mediation:

• perceived bias/harassment;
• failure to provide service/neglect of duty;
• discourteous treatment/unprofessionalism;
• unnecessary physical contact (i.e., no-injury/contact that is not a reportable use of force); and
• any other complaint that, in the view of the COPA Chief Administrator, is likely to have a minimal negative impact on the operations or professional image of CPD or the complainant has conveyed that mediation is the preferred method of resolution.

The following complaints are ineligible for mediation:

• a reportable use of force by a CPD member;
• an arrest of the complainant;
• an allegation of verbal abuse, as defined in 2-78-100 of the Municipal Code of Chicago;
• a lawsuit filed regarding the allegations in the complaint;
• an intimate partner relationship between the complainant and the CPD member (i.e., instances of domestic violence or sexual misconduct);
• injury to the complainant or CPD member;
• property damage caused by the complainant or CPD member; and
• complaints against a CPD member that include an express or apparent alleged violation of Illinois state law, the criminal code of another state, or a criminal federal statute.

During the pilot program, only complaints identified by COPA or CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs, and determined to be eligible by COPA, will be referred for mediation. Upon completion of the pilot program, the City will assess whether to adjust the scope of complaints eligible for mediation.  A complainant’s expressed desire to have their complaint mediated will be considered when determining whether a complaint is appropriate for mediation.

No. The program operates pursuant to a pilot City policy, and the purpose is to review select categories of complaints to assess and evaluate how to implement a police-community mediation program on a larger scale. There will be room for input and evaluation from CPD members and complainants throughout and at the conclusion of the pilot.

Two mediators will be present in each mediation. If the mediation takes place at the CCR offices, with both parties in-person, mediators will be present in the room. If the mediation takes place virtually within the CCR offices, mediators will also join virtually and will not be seated with either the complainant or the CPD member.

The following are summary steps for screening and referring complaints for mediation:

• COPA’s Intake Unit receives and reviews the complaint to determine whether it falls within COPA or CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs’ (BIA) jurisdiction.
• COPA and BIA further screen the complaint to determine whether the complaint meets the mediation eligibility criteria.
• Once determined to be eligible for mediation, summary information regarding the complaint is referred to CCR.
• CCR reviews the summary information provided and conducts outreach to the complainant and the CPD member(s) to explain the mediation process and determine whether both parties are willing to participate in mediation.
• If both parties agree to mediation, a mediation session is scheduled around both parties’ availability and mediators are assigned. If either party does not agree, CCR notifies COPA that mediation has been declined by that party.
• COPA and BIA determine whether the complaint should be investigated further or closed.

The mediation includes one meeting with a 2-hour time limit and will follow the following schedule:

• Mediator(s) and/or CCR staff will meet with each party separately to discuss concerns, review and sign the confidentiality agreement with both parties, and hold cell phones (if the mediation is handled remotely).
• Both parties and the mediator(s) will move into shared space, either a room at an in-person mediation or the same Zoom room in a virtual mediation.
• Mediator(s) will give opening statement, which will address the role of mediators, ground rules, and confidentiality.
• Each side will give a brief statement addressing what they hope to accomplish.
• Mediator(s) will set an agenda.
• The mediator will facilitate open conversation between the parties. The purpose is to have open dialogue with the goal of seeking understanding of the other side’s experience.
• After the open conversation, the mediator may determine that it would be helpful to meet with each party individually in an additional brief caucus session.
• Mediator(s) bring discussion to a close.

Mediation will be held in one of two ways; the option used must be agreed to by both parties:

• If both parties are comfortable meeting in person, the mediation will be held at CCR’s offices in downtown Chicago. The complainant will be made aware that the CPD member will be joining the mediation while on-duty, so the CPD member may be in uniform and carrying their service weapon during the mediation.

-OR-

• If a party is not comfortable meeting in person, the parties may agree to hold the mediation virtually while at CCR’s downtown offices. CCR staff will support the parties by providing private rooms with access to the virtual mediation. Complainants and CPD members will not be in the same room.

The mediator does not make any determinations about who is right or wrong and/or if an allegation is “true” or “untrue,” and in fact is prohibited from doing so under the Illinois Uniform Mediation Act. The mediator is not a judge and will not make any judgments or factual determinations. The parties are not required to agree for the complaint and mediation process to be considered as “completed.”

For example, if the complaint relates to perceived bias, the community member may wish to explain to the CPD member why the CPD member’s actions made them feel targeted or discriminated against, and the CPD member may wish to explain policing practices to the community member. Though the complainant and CPD member may not come to agreement, the mediation may still be considered successfully completed.

Complaints successfully completed through mediation will result in closure of the complaint without additional investigation or CPD member discipline.

The mediation program is voluntary; both parties (CPD member and complainant) must agree to enter mediation.  If either party does not wish to engage in mediation, COPA will follow standard intake and investigative practices, which may result in a disciplinary recommendation and outcome against the CPD member, or no disciplinary recommendations or outcome.

Good faith means that a party used the mediation process for its intended purpose – to meaningfully engage with the other party to the conflict. The mediators and CCR will determine whether parties participate in good faith.

Examples of behavior that would be considered not participating in good faith:

• A party appears for mediation, but does not speak during the session.
• A party appears for mediation, but refuses to hear from the other party.
• A party attempts to use mediation as an interrogation or as discovery.

Yes.  The mediation process will be governed by confidentiality protections in applicable law, including the Illinois Uniform Mediation Act.

No.  Mediation sessions will not be recorded or transcribed.  All information, including notes, records or other documents generated during the mediation will be destroyed at the conclusion of the session.

Please contact the Center for Conflict Resolution.

Individuals with limited English proficiency may bring an interpreter with them to the mediation session.

There is waiting space for non-participants who accompany for support. A support person may be present when the participant meets alone with the mediators or during breaks. The support person does not otherwise participate in the joint mediation session.