Four Chicago police officers-including a sergeant- have been recommended for suspensions for repeatedly stopping and improperly searching Blacks during traffic stops downtown and the city’s north side, according to documents released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA).
The officers are Sgt. Erick Seng, Richard Rodriguez, Joseph Vecchio and Crystina Kitrell. They are part of Chicago Police Department’s tactical team that patrols the Near North Side in the 18th police district.
They face suspensions totaling 72 days on top of other suspensions the officers received for similar past violations where they improperly searched Blacks during traffic stops downtown and in neighborhoods on the North Side.
But on August 11, 2024, COPA said the officers stopped a car with three Blacks inside after suspecting the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. COPA said the officers improperly searched three Blacks during a traffic stop near the Chicago Housing Authority’s Cabrini Green complex at Division and Sedgewick. There, COPA said the Blacks were ordered out of the car and searched for no reason. COPA said one was handcuffed while Sgt. Seng watched with his body camera turned off.
COPA investigated the incident after it received an anonymous complaint.
In its investigation, COPA concluded that the officers violated the individuals’ civil rights and multiple department rules.
COPA is not releasing the names of the three Black individuals who were improperly searched.
Both the driver and one of the passengers were armed and had valid Firearm Owners Identification cards (FOID) as well as concealed weapon licenses, according to COPA. When the individuals informed the officers that they were legally carrying guns, all three people in the car were ordered out of the car and improperly searched as Sgt. Seng watched, according to the COPA’s investigation.
None of the individuals in the traffic stop were cited or arrested during the search, which officers did not properly document, according to the investigation.
Records show that during the investigation, three of the four officers said they searched the vehicle because of the presence of cannabis in the car. However, no evidence was found that show the individuals in the car illegally possessed the drug, and the officers’ body-worn cameras did not record the discovery of improperly stored cannabis, according to the investigation. In addition, COPA said no drugs were confiscated during the stop. However, COPA said Rodriguez handcuffed one of the passengers for no reason.
According to COPA’s investigation, Kittrell improperly searched the car and the passengers’ belongings. She also improperly detained and searched a female passenger in the car and failed to document the traffic stop and search.
COPA said Sgt. Seng initiated the stop and supervised the other officers as they improperly searched the car, its passengers and their belongings.
In its investigation, COPA said Sgt. Seng “ordered and/or failed to stop” the improper search of the driver and the two passengers in keeping with the agency’s rules.
COPA also said Sgt. Seng did not ensure that the officers under his command properly documented the traffic stop as well as the decision to detain the driver and the two passengers, according to the probe. Seng also failed to activate his body-worn camera as required by CPD policy, records show.
COPA said the officers were justified in stopping the car, but they should not have searched the car and should not have handcuffed one of the individuals after the stop.
Sgt Seng received a proposed suspension of 25 days. In addition, CPD also agreed to suspend Officers Richard Rodriguez and Joseph Vecchio for 20 days each. Kittrell was suspended for seven days, after police brass objected to COPA’s recommendation that she be suspended for at least 11 days, records show. COPA ultimately agreed to the seven-day suspension.
According to COPA, the officers have a history of complaints that accuse them of stopping and searching Blacks in neighborhoods on the North Side. In a letter in 2024, COPA said eight members of the CPD’s Tactical Team made over 50 traffic stops that resulted in a troubling pattern of undocumented and unprofessional stops of Black people in Lincoln Park, West Town, Old Town, River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast and parts of Logan Square.
More than 90 percent of the complaints investigated by COPA were sparked by officers’ decisions to pull over Black people, according to the letter.
The letter also said the officers engaged in “unprofessional and disrespectful conduct” that violates department policy that included the “use of profanities, insults and threats of force.”
The letter said some of the inappropriate conduct was witnessed by their direct supervisor, Sgt. Erick Seng.
The officers named in COPA’s letter have been named in 13 lawsuits filed by Chicago drivers who said they were improperly stopped and searched near the North Michigan Avenue shopping district because they are Black, according to an analysis of court records by journalists at WTTW Channel 11.
Five members of that tactical team have been stripped of their police powers, including two -Rodriguez and Kitrell-of the four officers who participated in the Aug. 11, 2024, traffic stop and search.
In January, CPD agreed to suspend Sgt. Seng for 15 days in connection to another traffic stop that violated the constitutional rights of another driver, records show. In January, CPD agreed to suspend Sgt. Seng for 15 days in connection to another traffic stop that violated the constitutional rights of another driver, records show. In total, Sgt. Received 91 days in recommended suspensions.
Rodriguez and Vecchio were suspended for 20 days each in connection with their actions during the Aug. 11, 2024, traffic stop.
For other past sustained violations, Rodriguez received recommended suspensions totaling 151 days. Vecchio received a total of 132 days that includes past sustained complaints against him.
In addition, CPD agreed to suspend Officer Crystina Kittrell for seven days, after it objected to COPA’s proposed suspension of 11 days.