A Chicago police officer unlawfully stopped and searched a student walking home from the bus, telling him and the person he was with that they were targeted because they were “ugly as f—,” according to findings released by a watchdog group.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) reviewed and analyzed body-camera footage of the incident that unfolded after three officers stopped a male and a female around 1:50 p.m. on Dec. 10, 2024.
Furlan and two colleagues were patrolling the Jackson Park neighborhood in an unmarked Chicago Police Department vehicle when they spotted the individuals who later reported the troubling encounter to COPA.
Police officer Oscar Furlan at first told the male that he was stopped because he looked “like you got some s— on you.”
The pair, whose names and ages were redacted from the COPA report, told officers that they were on the way home from school and had just gotten off the bus, the report, released on Wednesday, says.
COPA said that during its investigation the officers “stated they stopped [the male] because they were in a high crime area, they observed [the male] walking with his hands in his pockets” and that he ignored one of the officers “when she asked him to remove his hands from his pockets.”
The male told the officers his hands were in his pockets because he was cold. The report said the temperature that day in Chicago was in the 30s.
Furlan told the COPA investigators that the male in question “had his hands in his pocket, acting like he was clutching something tight towards his waist or holding onto something tight.”
The male was briefly detained and patted down. Police did not find any contraband or weapons on him, and they were allowed to leave.
As they were walking away, Furlan hurled an insult at the pair.
“We stopped you because you are ugly as f—,” Furlan said.
COPA determined that the male was stopped and searched without justification. The group found that while the male tried to ignore the stop request, “nothing in his behavior suggested that he was dangerous or presented a danger of attack.”
The officers also failed to properly document the stop, COPA found.
Furlan violated Chicago Police Department policies that prohibit officers from disrespecting and insulting members of the public, according to the report.
COPA recommended a 10-day suspension for Furlan and for him to be retrained on “professionalism, investigatory stops, protective pat-downs, and related reporting requirements.”
The Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The department agreed to suspend Furlan for five days. One of the other officers involved was expected to get a three-day suspension and the third was due to get reprimanded, the Chicago Police Department confirmed in an Aug. 11 letter to COPA. The department also agreed to put the officers through “investigatory stop, pat-down, and professionalism training,” the letter went on to say.
