WEST TOWN — The new head of the Independent Police Review Authority announced reforms Monday to improve the agency's performance, but while promising transparency gave no new details in the day-after-Christmas police shooting deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones.
Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley called for "transparency," saying it's "a critical component to our mission," but added that balancing the integrity of investigations with the public's right to know would be judged on a case-by-case basis.
"I am not gonna jeopardize an investigation simply because you guys are hungry for information," Fairley told reporters at a West Town news conference. "We will release information if it's appropriate."
To that end, Fairley said the IPRA probe into the LeGrier-Jones shootings "continues in full force," but she gave few new details.
According to Fairley, at 4:21 on the morning of the shooting, Dec. 26, a man identified as Q called 911 to say "someone in the residence was threatening his life," but he did not answer the dispatcher's questions. A call at 4:24 a.m. followed from Jones' father, Antonio Jones, who said his 19-year-old son was trying to break into his bedroom with a baseball bat.
Officers were dispatched on a "well-being check" in what was considered a "domestic disturbance." According to Fairley, an officer reported firing a gun, and an officer reported an African-American man and woman shot and down, but she gave no other details except to say the investigation had been referred to the Cook County state's attorney in a procedural matter.
Instead Fairley, appointed to head the agency a month ago by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, announced new leadership under her command, saying it's "needed to build a more collaborative culture at IPRA."
Fairley hired a new chief of staff, Annette Moore, most recently an associate director of admissions at the University of Chicago, and chief investigator, Jay Westensee, who like Fairley comes over from Inspector General Joe Ferguson's office. She also promised to strengthen the agency's legal team "to increase legal oversight of the investigative process from start to finish."
She named Larry Merritt outreach manager to handle communications with the citywide community, as well as dealing with those making complaints and witnesses in ongoing cases.
An earlier IPRA news release on the reforms specifically mentioned the Laquan McDonald case and that of Philip Coleman, who died while in police custody in 2012, but not Cedric Chatman, shot by police three years ago in an incident that has prompted a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, and not the LeGrier-Jones shootings.
Created in 2007 in the midst of another round of questionable Police Department shooting cases, IPRA has thus far found only two police shootings unjustified (both involving off-duty officers) among the more than 400 it has investigated over the last eight years. That does not include the Laquan McDonald case, which Fairley has already turned over to Inspector General Joe Ferguson.
Fairley is a former federal prosecutor who more recently served under Ferguson before being appointed IPRA chief by Emanuel.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
