[CUCPJ Announce] [CPRB] When to meet to discuss CPRB?

[Ricky Baldwin]

I spoke with Esther yesterday at the post office, and
if there are no objections, I'll reserve a room at the
IDF for 7pm TUESDAY December 9 at 7pm - OK?

Hopefully that allows supportive City Councilmembers
like Danielle to attend - well, and the unsupportive
ones, too, if they like...

Ricky
--- Esther Patt <epatt at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> I think it would be a mistake for us to oppose the
> Citizen Police Review Ordinance.  Criticizing the
> way it will be watered down is certainly legitimate.
>  But saying it isn't worth it to even bother if the
> Board can't hire an Independent Investigator is
> unwise.   Let's take a step back and remember why we
> want a CPRB.
> 
> Without some type of CPRB, every citizen complaint
> against the police would be kept secret, as they are
> now. There would be zero oversight of complaints and
> if the PD refused to accept complaints or otherwise
> discouraged complainants from following through with
> a formal complaint, there would be no monitoring of
> that happening. 
> 
> That's the basic problem that we started out to
> address: no one is monitoring the way police handle
> citizen complaints other than the police themselves.
> 
> Even watered down, what we'd get from having a CPRB
> which we don't have now are:
> 
> - CPRB would be informed of every complaint filed
> against the police
> 
> - Complainants could file their complaints with the
> Human Rights Officer instead of the PD which will
> protect against people with legitimate complaints
> being talked out of filing
> 
> - There will be brochures and other promotional
> material inviting people to file complaints -- all
> materials developed and approved by the CPRB, not
> the police -- and these will be distributed widely
> in the community.
> 
> - Police would have to report to CPRB the results of
> their internal investigation of each complaint and
> what action, if any were taken against an officer or
> officers for misconduct.  The Board would not have
> the authority to overturn the Police Chief's
> decision but would have the authority to appeal that
> decision to the Mayor.
> 
> - CPRB would be able to track patterns of complaints
> against the same officer or on the same beat or
> demographics of people filing complaints.   
> 
> - CPRB would be a standing body whose purpose would
> include studying police department policies
> (independent of formal complaints or in response to
> them) and making recommendations for changes.
> 
> Let's not dismiss all of this as insignificant.  A
> judge has more authority than a watchdog, but a
> watchdog is a valuable role -- and we have no
> watchdog for the police now.  That's essentially
> what CPRB would be.
> 
> Also, an important strategy issue is: if we trash
> Urbana for watering down its CPRB, that will
> undermine our efforts to get Champaign to do create
> one.
> 
> Let's talk more when we meet.   Are people free
> January 8 at 7:00 p.m. to meet at IDF?
> Esther Patt
> 
> 


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