Attorneys for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) are demanding that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), an administrative oversight agency, stop preparing complaints for search warrants in cases that involve investigations of potential police misconduct.
COPA is acting with the approval of the Cook County State’s Attorney, according to a September 13 letter from Timothy Grace of the Chicago law firm of Gottreich Grace & Thompson to COPA and the State’s Attorney’s office. Grace said, however, that COPA has no authority to prepare the complaints since it has no police or prosecutorial power.
“We demand your office cease these illegal actions immediately,” Grace wrote.
The letter is the latest in an ongoing, bitter fight between the FOP and the State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who infuriated police over the dismissal of charges against actor Jussie Smollett for allegedly staging a hate crime, and the unexplained exonerations of some violent criminals.
COPA and the State’s Attorney’s office did not respond to requests from Chicago City Wire for comment.
Grace further wrote that criminal conduct alleged against a police officer should be referred to the Bureau of Internal Affairs, whose members are certified police officers.
“COPA does not have the authority to investigate criminal acts and thus cannot request the issuance of search warrants due to the fact that a party requesting a search warrant must allege there is probable cause of a crime,” Grace wrote. “It is similarly improper for the Cook County State's Attorney, who approves these search warrants, to participate and assist COPA in these illegal actions. COPA has many avenues to obtain information in its administrative duties and one of them is not asking a judge for a search warrant claiming a crime has been committed.”
Grace closed by writing that the law firm was also contacting the state labor board and the Department of Justice stating that “we believe this administration is operating, once again, outside the bounds of the law.”
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