Onetime supervisor at the Civilian Office of Police Accountability in Chicago slams agency leadership in whistleblower lawsuit

CHICAGO — A former supervisor with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city, alleging that he was fired last month after raising concerns of anti-police bias and unprofessionalism within the agency.

Matthew Haynam filed the lawsuit against the city last week, alleging that COPA chief administrator Andrea Kersten fired him in late August “in retaliation for Plaintiff’s good faith disclosure of Kersten’s outrageous misconduct to both the Office of the Inspector General for the City of Chicago and Civilian Commission on Public Safety and Accountability.”

Haynam’s suit accuses Kersten of repeatedly tainting the public’s perception of still-ongoing police misconduct investigations. What’s more, Haynam alleges, COPA investigators have a practice of disregarding Chicago Police training materials that are critical in determining if an officer engaged in misconduct.

“Whenever there is a high-profile tragic event involving a Chicago Police Officer, Kersten pushes the increasingly popular narrative that the accused officer(s) engaged in misconduct, regardless of whether facts revealed during the course of an investigation support Kersten’s chosen conclusion,” Haynam alleges.

Representatives for COPA and the city’s Law Department each declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Haynam points to Kersten’s public statements in high-profile COPA cases — statements made before the conclusion of any investigation — as proof of her alleged political aspirations affecting the integrity of the agency.

One such case was initiated in 2023 after rumors surfaced among city employees that a CPD officer assigned to the Ogden District (10th) was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with an asylum seeker who was, at the time, housed at the police station.

“Assumptions by Kersten are no proxy for actual evidence, but tellingly reveal her willingness to engage in confirmation bias while investigating police misconduct allegations,” Haynam wrote. “Unwilling or unable to allow the lack of evidence get in the way of her narrative, Kersten ignored the lack of evidence and made a demonstrably reckless statement to the general public.”

The first hearing in the case is scheduled for November, court records show.

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