EAST VILLAGE — The new head of the Independent Police Review Authority said Wednesday that it has hired a legal firm to conduct an audit of past police shootings, but that she didn't expect it to overturn or reopen closed cases.
"That's not our intent, to go back and reopen cases," said Sharon Fairley, chief administrator of IPRA, at a news conference marking her first 100 days in the post.
Fairley said that of "hundreds" of past police shootings, only two had been ruled unjustified. Yet she also scaled back the audit to only address police shootings since IPRA was created in 2007. She said she expected the audit to examine "20 to 40" police shootings.
The McGuire Woods law firm has been hired to conduct the audit, but she could not release at what cost to taxpayers, although she called the audit "important for both the community and our agency."
According to Fairley, the audit has three goals: to assess the quality and accuracy of IPRA investigations, and to provide "insights" on whether the Police Department's policy on the use of dangerous force actually encourages police shootings and needs to be changed.
Fairley said that in severe cases of clear-cut abuses, where an incorrect ruling was reached and a case might need to be reopened, that would be judged on a "case by case" basis.
Fairley pledged to bring integrity, independence, transparency and timeliness to the agency, but she acknowledged several shortcomings in those areas already.
She pledged independence, but admitted she informs Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office of police shootings, if he weren't "aware" already, to make sure he "knows about it." She also pleaded that she had to make the case to Emanuel for expanded personnel and resources in the IPRA budget going forward.
Fairley pledged transparency, but could not give a cost for the McGuire Woods audit, and admitted she will not jeopardize any investigation by discussing details prematurely.
She pledged timeliness, but granted that she acted as a "bottleneck" at times in her first 100 days, as she got a grasp on the office, and "definitely held up cases going out the door."
Fairley, however, insisted she was fully in position now. She estimated the audit of past police shootings would take about six months.
At the news conference, Fairley also introduced her previously announced new staffers, Chief of Staff Annette Moore and Chief Investigator Jay Westensee, who followed Fairley over from Inspector General Joe Ferguson's office.
Fairley was appointed to the office in December shortly after the release of the Laquan McDonald video and the firing of Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
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