An official who was fired from the agency that investigates shootings by police in Chicago is suing the city for wrongful termination.
Lorenzo Davis says he was fired by the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) because he refused to change his findings in several cases where he found Chicago police officers should not have fired their weapons. In his lawsuit Davis says the head of IPRA, Scott Ando, asked for his reports in Word Document format. Davis says Ando wanted to change Davis’ reports and attribute the changes to Davis himself.
The lawsuit also claims that Ando has continued to force other investigators to change their findings since Davis was fired. Davis’ attorney Torri Hamilton says Ando is regularly changing the investigations to find police officers acted appropriately. She says Ando does not tell investigators to change their findings to conclude that police engaged in misconduct.
“They named themselves the Independent Police Review Authority. It was supposed to be independent of the police department. And I don’t think that’s what actually is happening,” Hamilton said in her office Thursday.
Hamilton says Chicago aldermen should call for hearings into IPRA. She says they should question the independence of the Independent Police Review Authority. “The whole thing is broken. None of what was sold to the city council originally as justification for creating this agency is actually happening,” said Hamilton.
A spokesman for IPRA says the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
In previous WBEZ reports, the agency has called Davis’ claims baseless and said it’s committed to conducting fair and unbiased investigations. WBEZ has repeatedly invited IPRA Chief Administrator Scott Ando to talk about the Davis case and how IPRA investigates shootings by police. Ando has declined all requests.
