Sharon R. Fairley, head of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, addressed the crowd at Jenner & Block LLP’s office on Monday. In her first comments since Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans last week to replace IPRA with a new police oversight body, Fairley touted changes the agency has made since she took over in December. 
Sharon R. Fairley, head of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, addressed the crowd at Jenner & Block LLP’s office on Monday. In her first comments since Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans last week to replace IPRA with a new police oversight body, Fairley touted changes the agency has made since she took over in December.  — David Thomas

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the event was hosted by just one group. It’s been corrected to reflect that the event was hosted by three groups.


The incremental reforms that are being undertaken by Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority will carry on into the new civilian agency Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to create, a top IPRA official said Monday.

The comments from IPRA chief Sharon R. Fairley came just days after Emanuel announced his intentions to disband IPRA and replace it with a “civilian investigative agency that has more independence and more resources to do its work.”

Fairley, at an event hosted by the American Constitution Society, the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice at Jenner & Block LLP’s office, 353 N. Clark St., said the agency will continue to work on reforms in the meantime.

IPRA is charged with investigating certain allegations of police misconduct, and incidents where Chicago police officers discharge their weapons.

Fairley, who was named by Emanuel as head of the board in December after former chief administrator Scott Ando resigned, said the agency is bulking up its legal staff and involving them earlier in its investigations.

The former federal prosecutor described the investigations as legally “complex.”

“We are in the process of implementing this as a plan. We’re bringing on more and more lawyers, so that plan is in place right now,” Fairley said during Monday’s event. “And we hope that structure and that thinking process will go forward with the new entity as it’s created.”

“This is a huge opportunity to design a system that can really work, and work in a way that we all have confidence in it,” Fairley added.

IPRA has faced heavy scrutiny for how few complaints against Chicago police officers for allegations of misconduct or excessive force are sustained and end with discipline.

Fairley’s predecessor, Ando, was among the officials pushed out in the political backlash after the November release of a dashcam video showing Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in 2014.

IPRA had received several citizen complaints about Van Dyke before the McDonald shooting occurred.

Facing his own political heat, Emanuel organized the Police Accountability Task Force which recommended last month that IPRA be disbanded in favor of a new “civilian police investigative agency.”

The task force’s report details 26 different recommendations for IPRA and the new agency, which would have civilian oversight.

It’s unclear whether the legislation that will create this new agency will encompass all of these reforms. Emanuel in last week’s newspaper op-ed in the Chicago Tribune said he plans to present the legislation to the city council at its June 22 meeting.

“But it is clear that a totally new agency is required to rebuild trust in investigations of officer-involved shootings and the most serious allegations of police misconduct,” Emanuel wrote.

The task force’s report eviscerated IPRA, calling it “badly broken” as it appears to favor police officers.

“Almost since its inception, there have been questions about whether the agency performed its work fairly, competently, with rigor and independence,” the task force said in its report. “The answer is no.”

Fairley was joined at the American Constitution Society by Randolph N. Stone, a University of Chicago Law School professor who sat on the task force, and independent journalist Jamie Kalven, who has waged a number of court battles against the city of Chicago over the release of police records.

Both Stone and Kalven expressed some support for Fairley’s work. Stone said the report’s comments on IPRA were not a reflection of Fairley since she only took over in December. Kalven said when the transition from IPRA to the new agency begins, he said he hopes Fairley has a central role in that transition.

Fairley said she is optimistic about the new agency, calling it a “blank slate” and “an opportunity for true reform.”

At the same time, she expressed hope the new agency would continue IPRA’s expanded approach to investigations.

For instance, IPRA in the past would only examine an allegation of police brutality or “roughing up” during a traffic stop. But now the agency looks to see if the underlying traffic stop was legal or not, Fairley said.

Fairly added the agency is conducting a “historical audit” on officer-involved shootings to understand “where things went off the rails, so that we can be confident the agency that takes this on going forward won’t fall into the same trap.”