[Cprb] Your question about the proposed Police Review Board

[J. Wason]

>Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 03:11:31 -0600
>From: s-hill4 at uiuc.edu
>Subject: "Police Review"
>To: cprb at lists.cu.groogroo.com
>
>Greetings,
>
>I received your little leaflet about the proposed "Police Review Board."
As I read through it, I had one small question:  
>
>HOW exactly would members be selected (elected? appointed?) to serve on
such a Citizens Review Board?  WHO would make that determination of the
members?
>
>Gratefully,
>Steven P Hill (Urbana IL).

It's a reasonable question, Steven.  Remember that as a citizen coalition,
we're only asking that a Citizen Police Review Board be implemented, and
making suggestions as to its characteristics based on our research on
CPRB's in other communities.  Ultimately we would, realistically, probably
have relatively little power in crafting the actual ordinance.  That said,
we have developed a proposal and a model ordinance, using the City of
Urbana as our model.

Since Urbana has seven city council members, we propose that the CPRB
consist of seven citizen members, one from each ward in the city to ensure
adequate citywide representation.  We propose further that each city
council member nominate three citizen candidates, and that the mayor then
choose one of the three nominees.  This  gives the members of both the
legislative and executive branches of the city government a say and a stake
in the outcome, and prevents any one person from exercising too much power
over the composition of the Police Review Board.  In most instances the
mayor simply appoints citizens to the various boards and commissions -
with, I think, the approval of a majority of the City Council - but we felt
that in the case of the Police Review Board that would be giving the mayor
slightly too much power, and would risk a possible inequitable distribution
of Board members.

Hope that's responsive to your question.  Please feel free to ask more as
they occur to you, and to get involved in our coalition if it's an issue
that concerns you.

Sincerely,

John Wason