[Peace] Changes to Police Contract Come from “The Work of the Citizen”

[Brian Dolinar]

Two out of three proposals presented two years ago by the grassroots
organization, Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ), were
included in the police union contract approved by Champaign city council on
Tuesday night, December 4, 2012.



In April 2010, CUCPJ
delivered<http://www.ucimc.org/content/cucpj-makes-proposals-champaign-police-union-contract-wake-kiwane-carrington-killing>their
three proposals to city council with allies from the local NAACP,
Ministerial Alliance, and Planner’s Network, a student group. They were put
forward after widespread public outrage to the police killing of
15-year-old Kiwane Carrington on October 9, 2009. The recommendations to
the police union contract were written with the help of members of the
Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), who had recently won a contract
after a two-day strike. They included: 1) a residency requirement for
officers to live in the city of Champaign 2) drug testing of officers
involved in incidents that result in death or great bodily harm, and 3)
public access to complaints against police officers. The first two
proposals, in some version, have made it into the new police union
contract.



In the new agreement, the city will offer a $3,000 to officers who move
into the City of Champaign. If an officer fires their weapon, and there is
injury to person or property, they must submit to an alcohol and drug test.



In speaking before the city council on Tuesday night, Aaron Ammons, of
CUCPJ, highlighted how these changes came from the community. “The work of
the citizen,” he said, “is rarely, if ever, brought to light and
appreciated in the way it should be.”



Belden Fields, of CUCPJ, addressed the third proposal for access to police
complaints. The group had been mistaken, he admitted, in asking for this in
the police union contract. It’s not a bargaining issue,” he said, “It’s a
legal issue.” As Fields has reported in *The* *Public
i*<http://publici.ucimc.org/2012/11/a-tale-of-two-cities-public-access-to-police-complaints-in-champaign-and-urbana/>,
the decision in the *Gekas v. Williamson *case by the Fourth District
Appellate Court of Illinois, and two rulings from the Illinois Attorney
General’s office, state clearly that complaints against police officers are
public documents. The city of Champaign has refused to acknowledge the
decisions and explain its current policy of withholding the names of
officers in complaints. The city must disclose the names, Fields said, and
adopt policy in line with the recent rulings.



The City of Urbana is currently considering an ordinance putting such a
policy in writing.



For the *News-Gazette* article on the new police contract in Champaign
gohere<http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2012-12-04/new-police-contract-draws-praise-champaign.html>.



BD
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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