Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office has begun taking citizen complaints about police misconduct via an online portal, fielding about a dozen allegations since the site launched Thursday.
Prosecutors with the office’s Law Enforcement Accountability Division will vet the reports and determine whether to bring charges, the office said.
Suburban police departments and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the oversight agency for Chicago police, already allow citizens to make complaints to them and can refer matters to prosecutors. The new portal lets citizens instead make allegations directly to the state’s attorney’s office, which could investigate the matters on its own.
The online complaint form was launched in the midst of a nationwide reckoning over racism and police misconduct, sparked in part by widespread protests this spring over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, an incident caught on video involving an officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes.
“This tool will allow direct access to the State’s Attorney’s Office and offer an immediate resource as we work to increase accountability and equity in our justice system,” Foxx’s statement read.
In a pointed response, Foxx’s Republican challenger for state’s attorney in the November election, Pat O’Brien, on Sunday called the portal’s launch a “political stunt” — and then launched a website of his own, through which Cook County residents can make complaints of misconduct against Foxx herself.
Foxx’s campaign declined to comment on that tactic.
“As murders and gun violence soar in one of the bloodiest summers in Chicago, Ms. Foxx has set her sights on police officers, the men and women who provide our first line of defense from crime and violence,” O’Brien stated in a news release.
O’Brien’s release echoes common complaints among police that Foxx is soft on crime, and he asserted that the portal unduly burdens overworked rank-and-file prosecutors — similar to some grumbles among assistant state’s attorneys.
While citizens already have other venues to complain about police misconduct, there is nothing wrong with prosecutors acting as independent investigators before bringing charges, said Steven Lubet, an expert on legal ethics who teaches at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.
“The investigation of governmental misconduct is an essential role of prosecutors,” he said.
The state’s attorney’s office already has online forms through which citizens can report allegations of price gouging to the Consumer Fraud Unit. And last year, Foxx encouraged anyone with information related to singer R. Kelly’s alleged sexual misconduct to call their Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Division directly.
In a statement last week, Foxx said there had been “an increase in allegations of police criminal misconduct,” and “it is our obligation to provide an outlet where these serious concerns can be acknowledged and addressed in a timely way.”
COPA fielded nearly 600 complaints in the two weeks during and after the most prominent George Floyd-related protests this spring, according to the office.
Complainants on Foxx’s new portal can upload photos or video of the alleged misconduct on the prosecutors’ site and add a detailed description of the accusations. They must leave their name and contact information.
Foxx was elected in 2016 on a reform platform after incumbent top prosecutor Anita Alvarez came under heavy criticism for her handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting.
McDonald, 17, was killed by Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014; Alvarez did not bring charges against Van Dyke until more than a year later, as video was released showing him shoot McDonald 16 times.
COPA was established in the wake of the McDonald shooting as well, as its predecessor the Independent Police Review Authority was repeatedly criticized for being slow and ineffective.
Four years after Foxx’s election, her Republican challenger is taking a more traditional law-and-order line.
“Criminals are free, and law-abiding citizens are prisoners in their homes,” his website states.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
