CHICAGO, IL - On Friday, August 30th, two high-ranking officials with the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability board were fired; the incident comes days after one of them allegedly complained to the inspector general about bias against police.
According to the Chicago Sun Times, the two individuals were responsible for investigating Chicago Police misconduct. Matt Haynam, the deputy chief administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), who makes $163,068 a year, said that he was summoned to a virtual meeting with COPA Chief Andrea Kersten and general counsel Robin Murphy and was told that he was out, effective immediately. He said that he as provided with no reasoning for this decision.
He said that within 90-minutes of that meeting ending, COPA employees showed up at his house to retrieve his city car and seize his city-issued computer and phone. Shortly before being fired, Haynam said that he got a text message from COPA's supervising investigator, Garrett Schaaf, who had also been dismissed in a similar fashion. Schaaf, who makes $117,792 a year, decline to comment to the news outlet.
Haynam said, "I recently made a complaint to the [inspector general] directly and was let go today effective immediately and given no justification. I'm being fired because she [Kersten] is retaliating. There's not a performance issue or an issue with my skill level or technical ability, nor was I told there was. I've work there for seven years and been promoted four times. Yet after I make a complaint against Andrea, I'm fired without explanation? I haven't talked to her in over a month other than of her to fire me today."
Haynam went on, explaining that COPA is an agency in crisis and at a "standstill." He said, "I could probably give you 20 people at COPA who would tell you the same thing. We have employees inside with spread sheets tracking bias. We have quality managers who have met with Andrea and said, 'We have a real problem here.' Is there an issue? Yes. Enough people have been blowing the whistle that someone external to COPA has to either clear what's going on and say investigations are sound or they're not."
Haynam noted that Chicago Police Sup. Larry Snelling has complained that COPA's investigations are "outcome-based" and unfair to the accused officers, adding, "I think that's true ... I personally would not trust the process. I don't think it's fair in all cases." COPA's first deputy chief administrator, Ephraim Eaddy, pushed back on claims of an "anti-police bias" within the agency, noting that just 14 percent of investigations closed in 2023 resulted in sustained misconduct findings.
He said, "We remain committed to the work and our responsibility to receive complaints [and] investigate those complaints, to receive compliments of officers. And our obligation is to the city of Chicago at large, and we are still committed to that and have been committed since COPA launched in 2017."
Earlier this year, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) filed a lawsuit accusing Kersten and her top aides of leading dubious investigations and imposing unfairly harsh discipline on officers. FOP President John Catanzara claimed that Kersten "has taken that agency to a far-left ideology that is way beyond their mission statement. They're in charge of police accountability in theory, but they're not accountable to anybody. They made false claims, false reports, erroneous findings. It goes on and on and on."
He added, "We want the court to send a signal to her, to her No. 2, No. 3 and the other investigators working for COPA that our members are not there to be basically pinatas and punching bags. They don't get to just make stuff up to appease squeaky wheels in this city under the guise of police accountability when it's nothing but some far left-wing agenda that she's been placed in charge of."
According to the Chicago Sun Times, the two individuals were responsible for investigating Chicago Police misconduct. Matt Haynam, the deputy chief administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), who makes $163,068 a year, said that he was summoned to a virtual meeting with COPA Chief Andrea Kersten and general counsel Robin Murphy and was told that he was out, effective immediately. He said that he as provided with no reasoning for this decision.
He said that within 90-minutes of that meeting ending, COPA employees showed up at his house to retrieve his city car and seize his city-issued computer and phone. Shortly before being fired, Haynam said that he got a text message from COPA's supervising investigator, Garrett Schaaf, who had also been dismissed in a similar fashion. Schaaf, who makes $117,792 a year, decline to comment to the news outlet.
Haynam said, "I recently made a complaint to the [inspector general] directly and was let go today effective immediately and given no justification. I'm being fired because she [Kersten] is retaliating. There's not a performance issue or an issue with my skill level or technical ability, nor was I told there was. I've work there for seven years and been promoted four times. Yet after I make a complaint against Andrea, I'm fired without explanation? I haven't talked to her in over a month other than of her to fire me today."
Haynam went on, explaining that COPA is an agency in crisis and at a "standstill." He said, "I could probably give you 20 people at COPA who would tell you the same thing. We have employees inside with spread sheets tracking bias. We have quality managers who have met with Andrea and said, 'We have a real problem here.' Is there an issue? Yes. Enough people have been blowing the whistle that someone external to COPA has to either clear what's going on and say investigations are sound or they're not."
Haynam noted that Chicago Police Sup. Larry Snelling has complained that COPA's investigations are "outcome-based" and unfair to the accused officers, adding, "I think that's true ... I personally would not trust the process. I don't think it's fair in all cases." COPA's first deputy chief administrator, Ephraim Eaddy, pushed back on claims of an "anti-police bias" within the agency, noting that just 14 percent of investigations closed in 2023 resulted in sustained misconduct findings.
He said, "We remain committed to the work and our responsibility to receive complaints [and] investigate those complaints, to receive compliments of officers. And our obligation is to the city of Chicago at large, and we are still committed to that and have been committed since COPA launched in 2017."
Earlier this year, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) filed a lawsuit accusing Kersten and her top aides of leading dubious investigations and imposing unfairly harsh discipline on officers. FOP President John Catanzara claimed that Kersten "has taken that agency to a far-left ideology that is way beyond their mission statement. They're in charge of police accountability in theory, but they're not accountable to anybody. They made false claims, false reports, erroneous findings. It goes on and on and on."
He added, "We want the court to send a signal to her, to her No. 2, No. 3 and the other investigators working for COPA that our members are not there to be basically pinatas and punching bags. They don't get to just make stuff up to appease squeaky wheels in this city under the guise of police accountability when it's nothing but some far left-wing agenda that she's been placed in charge of."
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Comments
2024-09-15T18:04-0400 | Comment by: Chris
Well, now we know where the bias and misconduct are really at. As long as you give authority to communists and criminals, this will continue to get worse.
2024-09-16T02:01-0400 | Comment by: William
This is just more of the same LEFT WING WACKOS trying to make all police officers look like RACISTS!!! We need TRUMP and he will STOP all this madness!! That city EVIL CORRUPTION and needs a OVERHAUL!!