City IG report: Former Chicago cop operated unlicensed security company

Chicago’s office of inspector general released its third quarter report to the City Council Friday that detailed its investigations into a former Chicago police officer who operated an unlicensed security company and a Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigator who released an unredacted police report.

The inspector general found that the former Chicago Police Department officer who had operated an unlicensed private security company had also assisted the officer’s children in operating a second unlicensed security company, according to the 41-page report. The officer also used CPD resources to help with both businesses, which violated several of the police department’s rules of conduct by providing security services to bars and nightclubs that served alcohol.

The inspector general also found that the officer had entered into contracts with private clients and lied about the security companies being licensed, the report said. The officer also had improperly used CPD’s Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting database to search for people as part of the security work.

The officer retired during the investigation, the report said. The inspector general recommended that CPD designate the officer as having “resigned under inquiry,” making the retired officer ineligible for rehiring. The police department agreed with the recommendations. The inspector general also opened an investigation into a COPA investigator who released a confidential, unredacted police report, which was a violation of COPA policy, the report said. The investigator admitted to releasing the document but said they were never told that police reports were confidential.

The inspector general showed the investigator a copy of COPA’s confidentiality policy, which dictates that police reports are confidential, the report said. The investigator also did not redact the names, addresses and phone numbers of victims and witnesses in the report before releasing it, the report said. The inspector general recommended that COPA discipline and possibly fire the investigator, the report said. COPA agreed with the recommendation and began the disciplinary process with the city’s Department of Law.