[CPRB] Champaign Council to discuss Police Review Today - Mayor and Council likely to kill the idea

[Danielle Chynoweth]

The News-Gazette.com

Champaign citizens police review board lacks support
By Mike Monson
Monday July 30, 2007

CHAMPAIGN – A proposal to consider creating a citizens police review board
will come before the city council Tuesday night. But Mayor Jerry Schweighart
said Friday he believes he has the votes to kill the proposal.

"I don't think we'll vote to extend this to a second hearing," said
Schweighart. "My feeling is there isn't the support to pass it."

The issue will be discussed at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the city council meets in
study session, at the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St.

Council members will be asked at the meeting if they want city staff to seek
additional input about citizen review and hold a second study session, or
not pursue the idea.

Interviews with seven of the nine city council members show that five –
Schweighart, Vic McIntosh, Deborah Frank Feinen, Karen Foster and Tom Bruno
– either oppose a review board or have serious qualms about the concept.

McIntosh said he went on a "ride-along" with a Champaign police officer on
July 21 through the Garden Hills neighborhood.

"I've not seen anything that I think warrants putting something like this
together," he said. "I've seen absolutely no inappropriateness. Most of the
neighbors who see you drive by are waving and seem happy the police are
patrolling the streets."

Foster said she thinks the department's current internal complaint review
process is working well.

"I still feel the police department does a very capable job of investigating
complaints," she said. "Their complaint process is thorough and appears
complete to me."

Bruno said his fear is that a review board would be divisive.

"It's important we have good police-community relations and I wouldn't want
to create an entity that harms that," he said. "I'm not sure this concept
can be framed in a way that does more good than harm."

Council member Marci Dodds expressed a similar view to Bruno's, saying "if
it's not done carefully, it can be more divisive than helpful, and I'm not
interested in doing anything divisive."

Council member Ken Pirok was the only council member to support a further
look at the idea.

"I would like us to take a serious look at ways to improve the system," he
said.

But Pirok also said he would not want to create a new police review board.
He said he would want a review board's duties to be taken up by an existing
board, such as the human relations commission. Another idea he likes, Pirok
said, is the possibility of hiring an independent auditor to oversee the
complaint process.

Community activist Martel Miller said he will be attending Tuesday's meeting
and urging a thorough look at creating a citizens police review board.
Miller said he will attempt to show at the meeting that distrust of police
by the minority community dates back to the 1960s.

A review board "would be a way to let outside people look at complaints," he
said. "Right now, they're policing themselves."

Miller said he expects the council will probably reject the concept.

"They'd rather deal with corporations and land developers than issues that
affect the community," he said. "They've done nothing for the people."

While the council will not be voting Tuesday on a specific proposal, a city
police-community relations committee that includes several black community
leaders has put forward some proposed guidelines.

The guidelines, however, do not reflect the consensus of the committee,
which was divided between those who wanted a stronger proposal and those who
feel the current process works well.

The forwarded proposal is suggesting a review board made up of five to seven
members. It calls for the police department's professional standards
division to coordinate all investigations of citizen complaints against a
police officer, with police chain of command making a recommendation for the
disposition of a complaint and Police Chief R.T. Finney making a final
decision if any punishment is appropriate.

If a complainant disagrees with the chief's decision, he or she could then
appeal to the review board.

The review board would review the police investigation results, but with the
names and badge number of the police officer and the name of the complainant
excluded to the extent possible.

The review committee could agree with the staff recommendation; suggest more
investigation; take no exception to the process, but recommend an alternate
disposition; or take no exception to the process or disposition, but
recommend a review of the overall policy.

Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/2007/07/30/support_lacking_for_review_board
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