Police investigators too educated?
Investigators hired to probe the surging number of allegations of excessive force against Chicago Police officers are too educated to relate to those involved in the shootings, a South Side alderman warned Monday.
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) put the Independent Police Review Authority on notice about its hiring practices as the agency prepared to launch a study to determine the root cause of the 19 percent increase in complaints, most of them since March.
“Hiring people with advanced degrees is a wonderful thing in terms of their intellect and being able to determine what the legalities . . . are. But, out on those streets you’re talking to lay people,” Lyle said.
“I am just really, really frightened that, as you continue to hire all of these wonderful, brainy people that you lose the ability to talk to that 18-year-old who dropped out of high school and not only communicate with them but have them feel that they can communicate [with] you. To that extent, it’s a total waste of every dollar we’re putting in this department because those are the people [who] are involved in shootings.”
IPRA Chief Administrator Ilana Rosenzweig countered, “We evaluate our investigators constantly on their ability to attain information. . . . Some people who are very smart and very educated are very good at talking to people.”
Rosenzweig said complaints would not be surging if people weren’t “trusting the office.” But, she’s determined to look deeper—with help from a university or non-profit--so she knows where IPRA should focus its investigative and outreach resources and what changes in policy and training it should recommend to the Chicago Police Department.
Rosenzweig is the Los Angeles attorney hired by Mayor Daley to restore public confidence in investigations of police wrongdoing.
When she arrived in September 2007, there were 1,290 pending cases. The backlog has since grown to 1,986 cases, prompting Rosenzweig to propose converting three administrators positions to those of investigators.
The landmark ordinance that severed the Office of Professional Standards from the Chicago Police Department also established a six-month timetable for concluding investigations of police wrongdoing. But, that deadline is now met in only 60 percent of all cases.