Page 18 - FOP June 2019 Magazine

Can COPA disarm the police?
It appears that the Civilian Office of Police Ac- countability (COPA) has a problem with police officers having guns.
It appears that the investigators at COPA are genuinely afraid of firearms and the officers they are investigating. It is supposed to be a fair investigation, without bias or pre- determined outcome, yet some of the staff members clearly are wary of police officers. Maybe a person who is afraid of the tools that officers must use every day to engage in effective policing should not be in the business of judging an officer’s actions when required
to use his or her weapon?
The interesting issue regarding the directive is that it is, in
Recently, COPA put forth a new rule for
all officers required to provide a state- FOP ment. The rule states that officers now
must secure their weapons in a locker in-
stalled in the COPA officers’ waiting room
prior to providing the statement.
Legal Report
TIM GRACE
A new directive that went into effect June 1 states that “[F]or your convenience and to ensure safety and preparedness, COPA has installed a compartmentalized weapons locker for the use of officers in the members’ wait- ing area. Members shall secure firearms and Tasers in one of the locked compartments in advance of meeting with COPA investigative staff.”
Officers who have been subjected to a COPA interview have long known that the investigators are fearful of guns, but does COPA have the power to actually disarm the officers?
The new policy states that the purpose of this requirement is to balance the need for the safety of COPA staff against the expectation that law enforcement must be prepared to re- spond to the unexpected. In a typical COPA approach to all things policing, one has to ponder why the staff at COPA feel the need to be protected from police officers.
fact, the officers who are in greater danger than the COPA staff while being interviewed. Consider what happened on Dec. 28, 2018, when a COPA employee called 911 claiming that one of her fellow employees was planning a mass shooting at COPA’s office. The Chicago Police SWAT team responded; it was later learned that the allegation was false. The employee was arrest- ed and has pled not guilty to the pending felony.
There are also very clear laws on this issue. While a local area can be designated a “gun-free zone” under Illinois law, it can- not prohibit an active police officer from carrying a weapon.
Under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA), a qualified law enforcement officer is allowed to car- ry a weapon, concealed or otherwise, at all times and in any location with few exceptions. The statute specifically exempts police officers from any state law prohibition. Federal law pre- empts state law and the state of Illinois, City of Chicago and, most importantly, COPA cannot prohibit police officers from carrying their weapons. Seems relatively straightforward, but not to the powers that be over on North Ashland Avenue.
Can officers be ordered to surrender their weapons? The an- swer is a qualified “yes.” It comes down to the general orders of the Chicago Police Department. At the Bureau of Internal Affairs, for instance, officers are required to store their weap- ons in a lockbox during a statement, based on the fact that we are surrendering our firearms to the custody of another sworn law enforcement officer and will be given a direct order to do so.
Some courthouses in Cook County require us to secure our firearms but, again, we are surrendering said weapons to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, the members of which are also sworn law enforcement officers.
At COPA, there is no such law enforcement officer, and se- curity and access to the lockbox are ambiguous at best. The FOP has taken the position that Chicago Police Officers will not be disarmed.
FOP President Kevin Graham responded quickly to the new policy and notified COPA that, “There are many conflicts with your policy, not the least of which is the security and safety of our members. We are not going to agree to this.”
So now, COPA will have to find someone of rank to give the order. In case they missed a memo, let’s be clear by stating the obvious: we do not follow orders from COPA.
As of the writing of this article, the policy has not been test- ed, but we are likely to see a standoff soon. Hopefully, the supervisors will stand strong and not give the order. Perhaps COPA should be asked to disarm first?
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18 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2019