Former IPRA Chief Declines Florida Job

By Chip Mitchell
Scott Ando, forced out as chief administrator of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority last December, this week turned down an offer to be inspector general of Jacksonville.
Scott Ando, forced out as chief administrator of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority last December, this week turned down an offer to be inspector general of Jacksonville. Chip Mitchell / WBEZ
Scott Ando, forced out as chief administrator of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority last December, this week turned down an offer to be inspector general of Jacksonville.
Scott Ando, forced out as chief administrator of Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority last December, this week turned down an offer to be inspector general of Jacksonville. Chip Mitchell / WBEZ

Former IPRA Chief Declines Florida Job

By Chip Mitchell
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

The ousted former chief of the Chicago agency that investigates police shootings is turning down a big job in Florida’s most populous city.

Scott Ando led the Independent Police Review Authority for two-and-a-half years. He came under increasing fire for the agency’s failure to find a single on-duty police shooting unjustified.

Last December, Mayor Rahm Emanuel forced him out after the release of a video showing the fatal 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17.

IPRA was so discredited the city started planning to disband it. The City Council next week is expected to vote on an Emanuel-backed ordinance that would create a new oversight agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Officials in Jacksonville, Fla., last week offered Ando a job as that city’s inspector general.

This week Ando turned them down. He didn’t return WBEZ messages asking why. Jacksonville officials say he didn’t tell them either.

Chip Mitchell reports out of WBEZ’s West Side studio. Follow him at @ChipMitchell1.