CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s choice to lead Chicago’s police accountability agency is headed for a full City Council vote after clearing a divided Public Safety Committee on Wednesday.
Andrea Kersten, Interim Director of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, has been under fire for how COPA handled the report on a botched police raid. The name of murdered office Ella French was in that report with a recommendation for discipline. The report was written before she was killed, and Kersten again apologized for the pain that caused French's family and recommended changes giving her more leeway to redact information.
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Kersten is asking for a change in the law to give COPA’s director discretion, so a situation like this doesn’t happen again.
"I reached out to the Department of Law and I worked with them to craft a revision to our ordinance that gives the chief administrator a legal option that I did not have available to me in November when the report was released," Kersten said.
But Alderwoman Silvana Tabares was among those still feeling she could have done something to spare French's family anguish.
"Frankly, it demonstrates a lack of judgement and responsibility and raises some serious questions," Ald. Tabares said.
Six members of the Public Safety Committee voted against confirming Andrea Kersten as permanent COPA Director. But, nine voted for her and her nomination goes to the full City Council on Feb. 23.