[Peace-discuss] Champaign Citizen Police Review Board

[John W.]

At 10:08 PM 7/30/2007, Marti wrote:

>Tomorrow night the Champaign City Council is meeting to discuss a police 
>review board.  At it turns out a complaint can be filed against the police 
>department online.
><https://secure.ci.champaign.il.us/cpdconduct/>https://secure.ci.champaign.il.us/cpdconduct/
>For individuals who may have concerns about going to the police department 
>this resource may be valuable.
><https://secure.ci.champaign.il.us/cpdconduct/cpdconductfactsheet.php>https://secure.ci.champaign.il.us/cpdconduct/cpdconductfactsheet.php
>The above link is the fact sheet that is related to citizen's complaints. 
>What I find troublesome is the fact that criminal charges can be filed 
>against someone who makes a complaint - if the department determines that 
>the allegations have no merit and reach the conclusion that the accuser 
>knowingly submitted false statements to the police. Yet, if police arrest 
>someone and later find that the person did not commit a crime there are no 
>similar repercussions.


It's pretty much a moot point by now, but you have to compare applies with 
apples.  To start with, police don't find guilt or innocence; the criminal 
"justice" system does that.  The proper analogue would be if a police 
officer willfully arrested a suspect whom s/he knew to be innocent of 
committing a crime.  There SHOULD be harsh punishment for such behavior, 
but as the system is presently constituted there usually isn't, in large 
part because there's no viable way to PROVE that the police officer acted 
in bad faith.

John Wason

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