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Elgin cop who fatally shot woman has been target of complaints but cleared of wrongdoing

Chicago Tribune - 3/28/2018

March 28--In nearly 20 years with the Elgin Police Department, the officer who shot Decynthia Clements has received 22 commendations and more than 70 letters of appreciation.

He also was the subject of six complaints from people he interacted with in the community -- including claims of racial profiling and excessive force -- but was cleared in all cases, according to city documents and officials.

Lt. Christian Jensen was the self-described "boss" on the scene of the March 12 standoff during which Clements refused officers' orders to get out of her vehicle after it was stopped on Interstate 90. Jensen and other officers were preparing to use nonlethal methods of ending the standoff, but after Clements set her car on fire and then emerged from it holding a knife and moving toward officers, Jensen fatally shot her, according to police video released by the city.

Lawyers for Clements' family and other residents and activists have said they don't believe lethal force was necessary, and some said they believe race was a factor in the deadly turn of events, since Jensen is white and Clements was black.

According to records released by the city through a Freedom of Information Act request, Jensen was named, sometimes with other officers, in complaints six times since his hiring in 1999, the earliest in 2006 and the most recent in 2017. The names of those who filed the complaints were blacked out.

In each case, the complaints were determined to be "unfounded," meaning they were found to be not factual; "not sustained," meaning there wasn't enough evidence to prove an allegation; or the officers were exonerated, meaning their actions fell within the department's standard operating procedures.

The findings came out of the department's internal review process, not by an independent entity, as was noted by one of the complainants.

"When someone files a complaint it goes straight (through) the same ... people who have been harassing us for years," wrote the man, who made a general complaint in 2016 about his perception of the department's treatment of black residents. His complaint came after he said he was pulled over by another police agency and then turned over to Elgin because of two outstanding arrest warrants.

The man cited Jensen and other officers as being "in charge of a special unit who commit these aggressive acts of harassment and these unlawful attacks on me and the black community."

Other complainants also cited race, and it appears that five of the six people who filed the notices were African-American.

In the most recent complaint, from early 2017, a woman complained about her treatment during a traffic stop and reported that she believed officers were "violating her rights," that she felt "threatened and harassed" and that she was pulled over only because she was black. At the scene she asked for a supervisor, and Jensen responded. She was ultimately issued a warning ticket.

Officials said they explained to the woman the reason she was pulled over and why a K-9 officer was brought in.

The woman "stated that she wished the officers would just have had 'more sympathy' for the situation and she believed some form of sensitivity training would help the officers," according to a police report on her complaint.

Another person who filed a complaint in 2009 also claimed that Jensen and another officer pulled him over because he was black. That man was ticketed for failing to wear a seat belt and driving without insurance, records show.

Another man, identified in records as white, was confronted by officers at Elgin Mall in 2007 as a known gang member who was wearing gang colors and associating with other gang members, records show. The man began yelling obscenities and taunting officers, who eventually cited him for disorderly conduct, according to the documents. The man claimed that officers attempted to choke him while he resisted arrest, a claim denied by the officers involved. The man admitted trying to kick out a window of a squad car, records show.

Jensen could not be reached for comment. Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said late Tuesday, "We take all complaints seriously and we investigate them all. We also know in policing that proactive officers will get complaints from time to time."

The chief added, "If people have complaints we will investigate every single one of them. We can't investigate what we don't know about."

According to a media release at the time of his promotion to lieutenant in 2017, Jensen was hired in 1999 and promoted to sergeant in 2011. He was assigned to the gang crimes unit at the time of his promotion, when he was made night shift lieutenant. He also served as a SWAT team leader and as an adviser to the Police Explorer program at the time of his promotion.

In addition to the gang crimes unit, Jensen served on the narcotics unit and as a patrol officer.

He received several departmental awards, including of manager of the quarter, manager of the year, departmental commendations, distinguished services and unit citations. He has 73 letters of appreciation on file and has a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, according to the release.

On police video released by the department after the Clements shooting, Jensen is heard saying that what happened "absolutely sucks."

He also says, "I don't know what else we were going to do there."

Jensen has been placed on leave while state police investigate the shooting.

Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter.

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