You can find an agenda for the meeting here (chicago.gov/city/en/depts/…), and you can watch the meeting when it starts here: cantv.org/live/

This is the first public Police Board meeting since the Chief Administrator of COPA, Sydney Roberts, resigned roughly two weeks ago: news.wttw.com/2021/05/05/cop…

There is an agenda item titled "Report of the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability." I'm personally very curious to see who will be presenting the report tonight, or if it'll be presented at all.

And we’re off! Ghian Foreman, President of the Board, is calling the meeting to order and taking attendance. There is a court reporter taking a transcript of this meeting.

All the members of the Board are here, plus a few others, including Police Superintendent David Brown and interim chief administrator of COPA Andrea Kersten. The Board approved the minutes of the previous public meeting.

The third item on the agenda, and the first substantive one for tonight is a presentation from Northwestern sociology professor Andrew Papachristos. He’s speaking about the Chicago Neighborhood Policing Initiative (CNPI).

CNPI was launched by CPD and NYU’s Policing Project in January 2019. More info here: ipr.northwestern.edu/news/2021/n3-c…

CNPI was an initiative designed to change the way ground-level policing is done, says Papachristos. It was meant to find solutions “outside of a traditional criminal justice framework.”

It created a new type of police officer: the District Coordinator Officer (DCO), who would be “off the radio,” and hopefully get to know the sector/community they were worked in. (My apologies for the blurriness of the image—the quality of my stream is grainy.) https://t.co/OSMverXdDY

Papachristos is here to present his findings about whether CNPI established the necessary relationships with the community to build trust and co-produce public safety, among other things. https://t.co/pZjD4F4sYu

CNPI was piloted in the 25th police district, a predominantly Latino community on the West Side. Later, it expanded to the 15th district, a predominantly Black community. Papachristos will be referring to results about those two districts later on in his presentation.

Papachristos's research findings are based on 91 police interviews with 62 unique officers, and 99 community interviews with 37 unique community members.

One of the biggest concerns from residents and police: police responsiveness. Residents would say cops were there when they didn’t need to be, and not there when they wanted them there.

From the perspective of the police, they wanted the residents to understand there were constraints on their capacity. (All of this is based on Papachristos's presentation slides, which I'm sharing sparingly because the font on them is difficult to read.)

Another recurring theme in Papachristos's interviews: residents in the 15th and 25th districts remembered long histories of disrespect from police.

During the first year of the program (~Jan 2019-Jan 2020), some residents who were directly involved were excited about the changes in policing they were seeing. But less engaged residents felt like their problems weren’t being addressed.

Officers who were doing the work that first year were also very excited about the work.

One challenge early on: CPD internal support and perceptions. For example, some beat cops did not know what exactly a DCO was supposed to do.

On the community side, community ambassadors were not receiving as much support as they would have liked.

Now, for a pivot: what happened during COVID-19 and the summer of 2020? “A lot of things,” says Papachristos.

DCOs were pulled away from the communities they were stationed in to go downtown during the summer protests, for example. And community members wanted DCOs there, Papachristos says.

Based on statistical analysis, there was no discernible impact in the trust of community residents in the 25th district. Trust tended to follow larger trends: increasing after the conviction of Jason Van Dyke, and decreasing during the summer of 2020.

Papachristos recommends that on the policing side, there must be an increase in consistency and commitment. On the community side, he recommends better defining the community ambassador role.

The full report about NPI is available here: ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/repo…

Police Superintendent David Brown says he’s a “big supporter” of programs like NPI, and says that police cannot operate without building trust in the community.

Brown says CPD has reformed its search warrant policies, and it will make it public in a few days, along with a new foot pursuit policy.

Brown says the CPD has created or revised 111 policies including use of force over the last two years under the consent decree.

Brown says that officers are “rising to the occasion,” especially since there has been an uptick in the numbers of officers who have been shot at or shot recently.

Andrea Kersten, the interim chief administrator of COPA, is speaking now. She says it’s an honor to hold the position at this critical time for COPA.

“My commitment to you today is that we as an agency will continue to respond, to show up, to hear your complaints, to be transparent, to conclude our investigations,” says Kersten. Kersten thanks Sydney Roberts and she says she is truly grateful for her service.

During April 2021, COPA received 460 complaints, 88 complaints of which were in its jurisdiction. Also during April, there were 4 "officer-involved shootings," and those COPA investigations into those shootings are ongoing.

In April 2021, COPA closed the investigation into the search warrant of Anjanette Young’s home. The investigation lasted 16 months.

The Board is convening regarding matters of police discipline cases now. Board Member Rhoda Sweeney and Board Member Paula Wolff weighed in on cases where Supt. Brown and former COPA Chief Admin Roberts disagreed in terms of discipline.

In both cases, Brown recommended less discipline than Roberts for the officers. In both cases, the Police Board members found that Brown did not meet the standard to override the chief administrator's finding.

The public portion of the meeting is now starting. Zakia Muhammad (sp?) is the first public speaker. They call for more COPA transparency, and cites 3 COPA investigations. Muhammad wants information about the 12 police officers who carried out the raid on Anjanette Young's home.

Muhammad ends: “Now, we are charging genocide on this system of racism and white supremacy.”

Jennifer Edwards is the second public speaker. Edwards speaks about an upcoming business walk in the community. Edwards wants support from the Department of Public Health and Department of Buildings.

Eunice Chatman-Regis is the third public speaker. Chatman-Regis speaks about witnessing illegal activity at the supermarket and elsewhere in her community, and asks for help.

Matt Brandon, the 4th public speaker, thanks Supt. Brown for the CAPS team in the district.

A 5th public speaker (whose last name I believe is Perryman) speaks about an open-air drug market near their residence on the West Side. Perryman says the problem has been going on for a year. Perryman asks for help from Supt. Brown.

Supt. Brown reads Perryman the report he received today about the neighborhood.

Flora Suttle is the 6th public speaker. Her son was killed by a police officer on February 11, 2012, and she sent in a request to COPA to reopen her son’s case. She wants to know about the status of her request. news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/south-…

Robert Moore is the next public speaker. Moore sounds very agitated and is yelling. Many of his comments are nonsensical and not related to what the Police Board covers. Moore is muted exactly when his time runs out.

All members of the public who signed up to speak have spoken. A motion to adjourn the meeting is passed. Check out documenters.org later for more coverage of this meeting, including notes by Daniel Wolk.

Thanks for following along, and good night!