Tensions between police accountability commissioners boil over

Members of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) brought the drama to Chicago’s Northwest Side on Thursday. The sparsely attended meeting inside the Copernicus Center closed out with factions sniping at one another in a dispute centered around which two commissioners should participate in a work group to help select nominees for Chicago’s next police superintendent.

The stage was set during the meeting’s public comment segment, as some speakers defended Commissioner Sandra Wortham while referencing a story published Wednesday by conservative crime blotter CWBChicago. The right-wing blog claimed a majority of the commission wants Wortham removed from the two-person work group supporting the search process for a police superintendent. Previous superintendent Larry Snelling retired on July 15.

CCPSA has the responsibility of selecting finalists from the search and presenting them to the mayor, whose pick for the Chicago Police Department (CPD)’s top cop then goes to City Council for a confirmation vote. Though the entire commission ultimately selects candidates and conducts interviews, the working group is responsible for supporting the search process and recruiting candidates nationwide with the assistance of an independent search firm.

As CCPSA President Remel Terry prepared to adjourn the meeting, Commissioner Anthony Driver asked to address the CWBChicago report and rumors.

“There are parts of that article that are true, and there are parts of that article that are flat out nonsense,” he said. “I don’t believe Commissioner Wortham is the best person for this working group.”

He pointed to a lack of progress implementing a new traffic stop policy that was voted on last year. 

Commissioner Wortham and President Terry make up the work group responsible for negotiating the CCPSA’s traffic stop policy recommendations with CPD, who authored their own draft policy last spring. The policy negotiations between CCPSA and CPD over potential changes, which are private, remain stalled in the “collaboration” phase of implementation.

Official changes to the traffic stop policy are further complicated by CPD’s obligations under the 2019 consent decree, a federal court order mandating sweeping reforms to policing. The department has repeatedly missed reporting deadlines required by the decree, and a recent report from independent monitors found CPD has only complied in full with 25% of the order over the last seven years. While police are making fewer traffic stops overall, a recent Injustice Watch report found over half of traffic stops made over the last year were never reported to state regulators as required by law. 

“I am frustrated with the lack of traffic stop progress. That is a part of our logic here,” Driver said. “I don’t in any way want to attack Commissioner Wortham.”

According to Driver, reports claiming he and other commissioners were trying to change CCPSA bylaws to allow them to remove Wortham from the work group without President Terry’s approval are inaccurate. He also expressed frustration that the bylaws do not allow a majority of commissioners to add agenda items without the president’s consent.

“There is a problem with our bylaws,” Driver said. “If four commissioners—if a majority of commissioners—can have a stance and they’re not able to get something on the agenda, that’s wrong.”

He also said it was typical for members of the work groups to be reshuffled as new commissioners joined the board. 

Last month, newly appointed Commissioners Anjanette Young and Angelique Guzman served at their first public CCPSA meeting. Before they were confirmed, 18 police district councilors—representatives across each of Chicago’s police districts elected to hear community concerns and make recommendations to CCPSA commissioners—authored a letter asking to pause nominations after ex-cop and 22nd Police District Councilor Lee Bielecki showed up at former Commissioner Abierre Minor’s home, citing ongoing racist intimidation and police influence. Minor was not nominated for another term as commissioner, and the vote for the next slate proceeded anyway. Bielecki, who spoke during public comment at Thursday’s meeting, says he is not running for another term as district councilor.

“These working groups are not set in stone at all. Every time we get new commissioners, we reshuffle the working groups. That’s how it works,” Driver said.

Commissioner Angel Rubi Navarijo agreed.

“I was the commissioner who voiced those concerns, and I did solicit other commissioners, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to talk to other commissioners and ask them what they think,” Navarijo said. “And I just didn’t think that Commissioner Wortham would be a good member for this work group.”

Commissioner Wortham, who also serves as president of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, said she believes people are misleading vulnerable communities into distrusting the police.

“I have watched the narrative in this city shift over the last 16 years to try to trick the communities that need public safety the most out of trusting public safety, and specifically the Chicago Police Department,” Wortham said.

She then criticized the commissioners who support her removal one-by-one. 

She called Commissioner Navarijo’s employment by 48th Ward Alderperson Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth a “severe conflict of interest,” and shared she has had concerns about his “ability to comprehend the issues that we discuss.” 

Wortham also accused Commissioner Gina Piemonte, a defense attorney, of repeatedly misstating the law to the public, and alleged Commissioner Driver was “largely absent from this work” while unsuccessfully running for congress earlier this year. She also said Youth Commissioner Angelique Guzman, a senior at Mather High School on the North Side, has demonstrated “a lack of preparedness for the role.”

President Terry voiced her support for Commissioner Wortham and stated her commitment to not removing her from the working group.

“I’ve communicated several times that I would not operate in a fashion to do anything to anyone that I would not want done to myself, and I will not be leveraged to bully any of my colleagues,” she said. 

“There is a lot of misinformation or disinformation being spewed about,” President Terry told the crowd.

“We are a governmental agency,” she said before adjourning the meeting, “We are not an activist organization. We are not an adversarial body,” Terry added.

“When people have fought for oversight, if the goal was to oversee people that you actually hate, then you are in the wrong position. The success of the Chicago Police Department, of COPA, and the Police Board is on us. Their failures are also on us.”

The commission has 120 days to complete their search and recommend candidates to the mayor. Commissioner Driver sent a letter to the Chicago City Council on Wednesday, urging them to postpone that deadline until after the upcoming mayoral election, which will take place in February 2027.

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