City Council Confirms Andrea Kersten As Full-Time Chief Of Civilian Office Of Police Accountability
by Todd Feurer, CBS Chicago web producer
CHICAGO (CBS) --- After her nomination was stalled for months, interim Civilian Office of Police Accountability chief Andrea Kersten was confirmed for the permanent job on Wednesday, despite opposition from aldermen infuriated by the police watchdog agency's disciplinary recommendation for slain Police Officer Ella French.
Kersten's nomination was approved on a 31-14 vote on Wednesday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot's choice of Kersten for the full-time job running the city's police oversight agency had been bogged down since her nomination in November, amid furious criticism from aldermen over COPA's recommendation of a three-day suspension for French for her role in the botched 2019 raid of social worker Anjanette Young's home.
While many aldermen said they could not support Kersten's nomination over that perceived slight to an officer who was killed in the line of duty, several aldermen rose to the interim COPA chief's defense, saying she had no choice under city rules but to release the full report on the Anjanette Young investigation, even though the report recommended disciplinary action against French.
"We as a body must stand for what is right. We cannot allow the emotions of a certain individual situation necessarily cloud our judgment on the overall work and the body of work of COPA and its chief administrator. All this woman did was her job. That's all she did. She did her job. Her job is to report the facts. The facts are the facts. We cannot have our own set of facts. They are what they are," said Ald. Jason Ervin (28th).
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) said Kersten was simply performing her duty as required by the rules the City Council itself established for how COPA is to report its findings on investigations of police misconduct.
"Ms. Kersten has followed the rules, she has done her job, and that's the kind of person that we need in charge of an accountability office," she said.
Lightfoot first nominated Kersten for the permanent job in November, angering many aldermen who opposed her appointment over COPA's recommendation that French be suspended for three days for failing to activate her body camera during the raid of Young's home.
Kerten has defended the report itself, noting the recommendation to suspend French was made months before her death, even though the report was not made public until after French was shot and killed in the line of duty.
However, Kersten has repeatedly apologized for not doing more to inform French's family of the recommendation before it was made public.
Her apologies were not enough to assuage many of the council's more conservative aldermen, including Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd), who led an effort to try to block Kersten's nomination.
Tabares said, under Kersten's leadership as the interim chief administrator, "COPA is more focused on dishing out punishment instead of truth and fairness, and amid a CPD staffing crisis."
"What sort of message does Ms. Kersten's appointment send to our Chicago Police Department? We can do better," she said.
Lightfoot, who herself had demanded an apology from Kersten for her handling of the report recommending French be disciplined, nonetheless said she remains confident Kersten is the right choice to lead COPA.
Having held a similar position herself as onetime chief administrator of the Office of Professional Standards, a precursor to COPA, the mayor said "I know firsthand how difficult the job is."
"Every time you make a decision, someone's going to be unhappy, but what I admire about you, and why I know you're the right person for this job in this moment is you're going to call balls and strikes. You're going to do your job with dignity and integrity, and you're going to be fair," Lightfoot said.