Lisa Fournier
Lisa Fournier

The agency that investigates Chicago police shootings is beginning a week of training led by a controversial psychologist who often testifies in support of officers who have shot civilians, WBEZ has learned.

Independent Police Review Authority investigators and supervisors on Monday will begin a five-day course led by Bill Lewinski, founder and leader of the Minnesota-based Force Science Institute, according to internal IPRA records.

Lewinski’s own studies have also come under fire. In 2011, the U.S. Justice Department asked for a review of them by Lisa Fournier, an associate psychology professor at Washington State University. She looked at his doctoral dissertation and eight other samples. She was not impressed.

“Either he failed to use statistics to evaluate the timing measures that he has, or he has not had sufficient control groups,” Fournier told WBEZ. “Often times, too, he overgeneralizes his results or what he is claiming to occur.”

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