>> State law does not prevent Chicago's police misconduct agency.

The civilian office of Police Accountability from investigating fatal officer shootings.

That's the ruling from the Cook County judge in a lawsuit brought by the city's largest police union that threaten to up into the system.

The city uses to probe the most serious allegations of police misconduct.

Our Heather Sharon joins us now with more.

Heather.

So we do the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, which represents rank and file police officers.

They have long contended that investigators from the agency that we call cope out were illegally investigating fatal shootings.

But Judge Michael Mullen rejected that argument.

Why?

Well, ruled that state law does not require COVID investigators either be sworn law enforcement officers or to undergo the same training that homicide detectives need to undergo before they're allowed to be lead investigator in investigating a homicide.

He said that.

>> Investigators with coping get an appropriate amount of training for what they're asked to do now.

John Catanzara, the president of the police union didn't respond to my requests for comment.

Had this lawsuit unsuccessful or if this ruling is overturned on appeal, as you said, it will overturned the way the city investigates fatal police shootings and other deaths.

Cpd officers killed 9 people in 2025.

That is more than in any year since 2021.

>> How are those investigations conducted?

Well, COVID is charged not with determining whether there was criminality involved in those those deaths.

But just whether CPD is policies regarding the use of force were followed after those investigations are concluded.

They turn over that evidence to this Cook County State's Attorney's office, which determines.

>> Whether the officers should be charged with a crime.

The judge ruled that sense that evidence is not directly used by cope but to charge officers with wrongdoing.

They do not need to be sworn law enforcement agents.

So the police his lawsuit also alleged that the city has been improperly keeping video captured by officers body-worn cameras.

How did the judge rule on that He said state law is clear the city cannot and should not be maintaining this video after 90 days unless it is flagged further review.

And there are only 7 specific reasons why that video can be retained.

Apparently the city has been keeping all of these videos and has between 14 million 20 million videos in its system that the judge says must be destroyed by the end March.

And he ordered the city to immediately stop maintaining this video past 90 days.

I asked the city's law department for a response to that ruling.

They said they are reviewing the entire ruling but declined to comment That has a lot of video as we know are at how Sharon.

Thank