Advisory Concerning the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s Practice of Administratively Terminating Disciplinary Investigations

The Public Safety section of the City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducts, on an ongoing basis, reviews of individual closed disciplinary investigations conducted by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) and the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA). In the course of these reviews, OIG identified issues with COPA’s use of “administrative termination” to conclude disciplinary investigations short of an investigative finding. OIG found that administrative termination is ill-defined and frequently misapplied, with inconsistencies and inaccuracies in its use falling into two general categories. OIG recommended that COPA add policies on the use of administrative termination to its Manual; establish clear and specific criteria for its use; ensure that all potentially appropriate dispositions are considered; ensure that, during supervisory review, all required criteria for administrative termination are met; ensure that the chief administrator’s approval is sought when appropriate; and refrain from administratively terminating investigations based solely on the age of the complaint or as a means to increase case closure capacity.