Page 15 - Demo

2017, here we go
The Lodge met with the hierarchy of IPRA recently after many months of zero communi- cations. It was the first sit-down meeting since late 2015. IPRA informed the Lodge of the impending change to COPA and some of the modifications it will be making. According to the head of IPRA, Sharon Fairley, IPRA/COPA’s budget will increase from $8.5 million to $17 million. IPRA/COPA is on a hiring blitz and will
be looking to fill 141 full-time investigative spots, with the majority of them attorneys if possible, according
to the meet-and-greet. They will be taking a page
out of the Chicago Police Department handbook
to be ordered to cooperate by a supervisor or investigator from your own agency, because no other department has authority over you. If an outside agency is investigating your incident, you must get an order from a CPD super- visor before talking further. Additionally, the order should be in writing and it should be clear. Officers involved in deadly force will be filled with adrenaline at the time this information is elicited, and they need to be instructed that they are not to offer anything outside the scope of the incident. At this point, if questioning is outside the
scope of the incident, officers should request a lawyer and for their Miranda rights to be given, and they
should remain silent.
Special prosecutor
As many of you are now aware, a special grand jury was impaneled regarding a police-involved in- cident that occurred in November 2014. The special prosecutor in this matter is a former Cook County Cir- cuit judge named Patricia Brown Holmes. Holmes was appointed to the bench in December 1997, where she remained until July 2005. At that time, Holmes left for a
partnership position at a large Chicago law firm.
Since leaving the bench, Holmes has been the go-to at- torney to right the wrongs of injustice. Holmes has been appointed to numerous fact-finding committees, many of them as the chairperson. Former Governor Pat Quinn appointed her to chair the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. Holmes was one of the earliest mem- bers of this commission and because of that, should be banned from any dealings with Chicago police officers. This commission has shown a complete disdain toward the Chicago Police Department and its members since its inception. I have zero confidence that this special prose- cutor will be unbiased and fair in her pursuit for the truth regarding this incident. The narrative was set in stone previously and she will just be going through the motions billing the taxpayers. Holmes has made a career of billing taxpayers with all the commissions she has been a part of, including the 2010 investigation of the Burr Oak Cem- etery scandal as chair of the governor’s Cemetery Over- sight Task Force. And what exactly was the final outcome
of that investigation?
Going forward, if anyone receives a subpoena from this
special prosecutor, please contact me at the Lodge so we can secure counsel.
Campaign for change
I would be remiss if I did not mention the foolish plan Congressman Danny Davis and a whole plethora of elect- ed officials discussed after Davis lost a grandchild to a senseless gun murder at the hands of two teenage associ- ates. While the loss of any child is devastating, how about not making a political crusade about it? The plan was
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THOMAS
THOMAS
McDONAGH
MCDONAGH
and attempting to improve on the supervisory
ratio, hoping this will develop some quality and
help the timeliness of investigations. IPRA/COPA
will be hiring subject matter experts and video spe- cialists. What does this mean for us? It means they can take as much time as they want investigating police offi- cers. It means they can place police officers in the pen- alty box after they have been aggressively patrolling the streets years after a harrowing incident. It means they can strip police officers for actions that were deemed justi- fied years prior but have now been reopened. It means that these subject matter experts will have the narrative in place and will do all they can to keep the gravy train rolling. My gut tells me IPRA/COPA will be attempting to make examples out of every Chicago police officer they can, now more than ever.
With this change in strategy by IPRA/COPA, it is im- perative that we never give a voluntary statement to any investigator in a case where there is any chance of crim- inal charges being brought. All statements to investiga- tors, including detectives, should be compelled. The only statement we are required to make as an involved officer at the scene of an incident is a public safety statement to a supervisor. This is reasonable because there is an urgent need for certain information, but the questioning must be limited in scope.
It must be clear that the officer is being given an “or- der” to provide a public safety statement. We need to make certain that the supervisor gives this order verbally and that the order be clear that the officer is “required to provide this statement and that they will be fired if they refuse to provide the statement.” If the supervisor fails to use that specific terminology, the officer must request it. This is intended to limit the extent to which the state- ment can be used later as the investigation develops. As you know, if you are compelled to give a statement in fear of otherwise losing your job, what you say, along with ev- idence derived from it, cannot later be used against you in criminal proceedings regarding that case. That ground rule was established in 1967 in the landmark Supreme Court case of Garrity v. New Jersey.
Field Representative
REPORT
For a statement to be considered compulsory, you have
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