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Field Representative’s Report
COPA has no authority in police shootings
A while back, a member talked to me about COPA, saying how he doesn’t believe COPA can legally in- vestigate Police Officer-involved deaths. His state- ment piqued my interest.
Reading over the state laws on not only offi- cer-involved deaths, shootings deaths or in-custody deaths, but any death investigation, the law has re- quirements as to who is allowed to investigate those incidents — and rightfully so. But we want to ensure that the investigation is done correctly and fairly.
Both laws refer to those being allowed to investigate these in- cidents needing to possess, among other things, a Lead Homi- cide Investigator (LHI) Certification. It further states the training for this certification must be approved by the Illinois Law En- forcement Training Standards Board (ILETSB).
So, I sent a Freedom of Information Act request to COPA to see if they had the required certifications. They came back claim- ing to have these certifications and presented me with copies of more than 40 certifications for their investigations.
I additionally sent a request to the ILETSB for a list of certifi- cations held by members of IPRA or COPA. ILETSB had no re- cord of anyone from IPRA or COPA possessing this certification.
I inquired further as to how COPA had these certifications. I
was told by the ILETSB that, “While Wicklander-Zulawski is one of the vendors who have been approved by ILETSB to provide the 40 hour LHI certification course through the Mobile Team Unit (MTU) of the ILETSB, that certification is only valid for courses offered through the MTUs. If they should provide that same class, outside of the MTU system that reports to ILETSB, it is not certified, and those who attend the course are not certified Lead Homicide Investigators.”
Therefore, COPA and the City of Chicago are in violation of state law.
The Lodge attempted to file suit against the City and COPA in 2016 on these grounds. The City filed a motion to dismiss. The City argued and won in its motion that at that point in time, the Lodge lacked standing because we had not been harmed and it is only speculative that we would be.
We didn’t agree with the decision and have been looking at ways to prove otherwise. We are now on the brink of just that in Officer Rialmo’s case.
At the FOP Board meeting on June 5, I presented all of my findings to the members of the board. I requested that we again file the lawsuit, and I am pleased to announce the Board of Di- rectors unanimously approved filing suit against COPA. d
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