top of page

CHICAGO POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY FORUM 2022

Presented by the Collaboration for Justice

On Thursday, July 28, 2022, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts &

Chicago Council of Lawyers will host our Annual Forum on Chicago Police Accountability.

 

Moderator Sharon Fairley (Professor from Pratice, University of Chicago Law School) will be joined by Sheila Bedi, Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law; Andrea Kersten, Chief Administrator of the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA); and Adam Gross, Executive Director of Chicago’s new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.

CONFIRMED PANELISTS

sharon-fairley.jpeg
BediSheila.jpeg
adam gross_edited_edited.jpg

Sharon Fairley
Professor from Practice,
University of Chicago Law School

Andrea Kersten
Chief Administrator of the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA)

Sheila Bedi
Clinical Professor of Law & Director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Adam Gross
Executive Director of Chicago’s new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability

Sharon Fairley has taught courses on criminal procedure, legal ethics, and public corruption at the University of Chicago Law School since 2015, becoming a Professor from Practice in 2019. Before joining the Law School, Ms. Fairley held positions as a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and the First Deputy Inspector General and General Counsel for the City of Chicago Office of the Inspector General.

 

Following the police murder of Laquan McDonald in 2015, Sharon Fairley served as the Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) and then helped create and build Chicago's Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). 

Andrea Kersten is the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). She has previously served as a domestic violence advocate, an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County, and an Administrative Law Judge for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, and has been instrumental in forming COPA’s Special Victims Unit, a group of specialized investigators dedicated to victims of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and domestic violence.

 

In 2020, Ms. Kersten helped form COPA’s Protest/Civil Unrest Unit, which is organized to address mass protest-related complaints against the Chicago Police Department.

Sheila A. Bedi is a clinical professor of law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and director of the Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, a law school clinic that provides students with the opportunities to work within social-justice movements on legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing over-policing and mass imprisonment. Professor Bedi litigates civil-rights claims on behalf of people who have endured police violence and abusive prison conditions. She also represents grassroots community groups seeking to end mass imprisonment and to redress abusive policing.

Adam Gross has recently been appointed Executive Director of Chicago’s new Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, the new community-based oversight body providing public oversight of the Chicago Police Department (CPD). The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which was established by ordinance in 2021, is designed to give Chicagoans “real control” of CPD by establishing a model that includes a public, seven-person panel where members serve four-year terms. Mr. Gross will manage the team that supports the Commission and its District Councils and serve as a liaison between CPD and the city’s other oversight boards.
 

Questions

SUBMIT QUESTIONS TO THE MODERATOR

Thank You For Submitting Your Question

bottom of page