CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said a pilot program to mediate misconduct complaints is a “win-win.”
That’s a change from his position several months ago, when he called on Chicago police union members to decline to participate in the mediation program.
Catanzara said the City of Chicago and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) gave the union some “deep input.”
The result is that some of the paperwork on misconduct complaints will no longer land on the desk of COPA, the police watchdog, and will instead go to a community mediator.
“It’s disciplined, basically being meted out differently to officers, where it’s more of a learning lesson than it is a financial hit, which seems to be the more popular way to go more times than not,” Catanzara said. “And we get to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes for a change, which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing.”
Related
Catanzara said he would’ve liked to have seen the community-based mediation “on a broader scale,” and not just limited to what he called “minor transgressions.”
He was also critical that COPA has sole discretion over whether an incident qualifies for community-based mediation.
“If the goal here is to have more community outreach and involvement … then why would COPA stand in the way of any complainant having the ability to have a conversation with the officer about the interaction they had -— regardless of what the incident and violation was?” Catanzara said.
The Lightfoot Administration said the pilot program is a partnership with the Center for Conflict Resolution.
The pilot mediation program started on Oct. 1 and will run through March.
Related
Related
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!