Chambana Sun

City of Champaign Human Relations Commission met March 6.

Here is the agenda as provided by the Commission:

I. Call to Order 

II. Roll Call 

III. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 6, 2017 (Minutes of the Special Meeting and Regular Meeting)

Motion to accept minutes of special meeting: Felty Second: Elmore Carries Unanimously Motion to accept minutes of regular meeting: Elmore Second: W. Comer Carries Unanimously with corrections

IV. Correspondence/Announcements 

V. Staff and Committee Reports – Rachel Joy, Community Relations Manager/Compliance Officer a. Community Relations Office Monthly Activity Reports i. Since the February 6, HRC meeting, there have been new no discrimination cases opened in the Community Relations Office. CRO currently has three open cases. ii. Since the February 6, HRC meeting, the Champaign Police Department has closed one case. There are currently no open cases with the Police Department. b. Hiring Report i. In the month of February there were seven white males hired, and one Asian male hired. 

VI. Audience Participation None 

VII. Community Presentation a. 2016 Summary of Police Department Citizen Complaints – Lt. Tod Myers, Office of Professional Standards, Deputy Chief Jon Swenson Chief Cobb unable to make meeting due to conflict in schedule

Lt. Myers manages all of Champaign Police Department complaints Can have one complaint with multiple allegations attached to it Question: Commissioner W. Comer – how long does it take before an officer is brought before a board before discussion of suspension or termination? Lt. Swenson – standard default is that complaint needs to be thoroughly investigated within 45 days. In serious cases where there is suspension or termination involved, there is a hearing involved. That pre-disciplinary hearing is not always completed within the 45 days but more often than not is really close to that 45 days. Question: Commissioner Turner – where in the hierarchy are these complaints investigated? Lt. Myers: Depends on the seriousness of the complaint. If it’s an officer it starts at shift sergeant. Potentially 4 layers of overview of my investigation Question: Commissioner Young – you indicated that there weren’t very many compliments. How would a citizen go about doing that? Lt. Myers: we have an online form. Generally, we see more emails to the chief or letters in the mail. Question: Commissioner Young – what is the difference between an allegation and complaint? Lt. Myers: One complaint may have 3 or 4 allegations within the complaint. Question: Commissioner Elmore – I love that there were more compliments than complaints this year. What is the process of filing complaints vs. compliments? Lt. Swenson: we’ll take a complaint from anyone who walks in, public locations, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance, Douglass Park. About 2/3 to ¾ of them are filed through the City/Police Dept. Feedback Form. It doesn’t matter the mechanism through which the complaint is filed, we’re going to investigate it regardless. The first thing we do when we get a complaint is to contact the person. Occasionally people say it wasn’t that big of a deal but they just wanted the officer’s supervisor to know. Commissioner Felty: Someone asked me to go with them as a Commissioner to a complaint meeting. Chief Cobb reviewed the video that was recorded from the patrol officer’s car, the transcript from that had been brought up, the 911 call had been reviewed, the person who complained got to see the whole process and it was very well done. Question: Commissioner W. Comer – do all complaints have to get all the way to Chief Cobb or can it be handled lower down in the chain? Lt. Swenson: at each level of the review, the person who reviews it does two things: stating in writing whether they agree or disagree; and if there is a finding they are making a decision about disciplinary action. If there is going to be a suspension or termination, up to the point that it gets to Chief Cobb, everything along the way is just a recommendation. Chief Cobb also has the latitude to send it back for further investigation. Question: Commissioner Felty – have you seen any changes in patterns within the police department as our police officers undergo more and more training with the public and as video cameras are put into place? Lt. Swenson: I don’t personally believe there is a big difference where the video cameras have made a big difference in how the officers do their job. 15 years ago the majority of complaints was from traffic stops. We didn’t have a single complaint that stemmed from use of force incident. I credit that from the defensive tactic training the officers are undergoing. The other mechanism we added was the Use of Force Review Board. People who have expertise in these things are getting together in a room and reviewing every use of force incident. Whether it’s a complaint or a use of force incident when the chief puts his name to it, he has to have every level of confidence that the complaint has been thoroughly reviewed. There was a time when we were getting about 45-50 complaints per year. 99.99% of the time we believe officers are out there doing what we expect them to be doing.

Question: Commissioner Young - what’s the difference between a use of force complaint and a regular complaint? Lt. Swenson: an administrative review does not require a complaint. We do that on a proactive basis on our own because we want to make sure our people are doing the right thing day in and day out. Question: Commissioner Turner - I’m really impressed with this process. Is there any analysis that has been done in terms of the process being cumbersome for the complainant that perhaps might discourage people from complaining? Lt. Swenson: we certainly have looked at the process through which we are accepting and looking at complaints. We are looking not only to stock complaints at those locations but possibly even training staff members at those locations who will kind of work as advocates and help walk people through the process. We are certainly looking to make some improvements there.

VIII. Old Business a. 2018 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Countywide Celebration Committee Report – Amy Felty/Demario Turner – No update b. 2017 Champaign Urbana International Humanitarian Awards Committee Report – Kenton Elmore/Barbara Bressner – No update

IX. New Business 

a. Report from subcommittee on HRC 2017 Action Plan – Commissioner Kenton Elmore & Commissioner Demario Turner presented a brief summary of the 2017 HRC Action Plan.

Commissioner W. Comer: when we talk in terms of the Reentry Program, I want to encourage us to connect to the CU Fresh Start initiative here in town as it works with those who have been released and the entire purpose of CU Fresh Start is to help them become re-acclimated to the community and not go back to some of the behaviors. Maybe coming to one of the next meetings and see how we can work together. It may be a great place as we start talking bout this reentry piece. Commissioner Young: one of the things that I asked is that we have them come talk to us so that the community has a better overall understanding of what CU Fresh Start is Commissioner Felty: is there any place where you thought we would be working with the Urbana HRC across the communities? Commissioner Turner: Rachel will be working with us. It is in the works, something we’re looking at and something we’re interested in. Commissioner Bressner: on outreach and education – it is a Disability Resource Expo, not a Disability Rights Expo. There will not be an expo this year. It will likely be in early May next year. Commissioner W. Comer: how can we as a Commission connect more with young people in our community? It so happens that we have someone who is a high school student but I think if we look at the larger population of high school students or even college students, I don’t think we play a role in their life or have a connection with them. Commissioner Young: some of the social media campaigns might help as well. But I don’t think many people in the community even know about HRC. We need to do marketing and making sure we get the word out in our community that we exist. Once we begin our media campaign and getting our information out there, that will help. Any suggestions from Commissioner Shackelford?

Commissioner Shackelford: I think implementing multiple social media accounts would be helpful to get our names out. At the same time, I don’t know how many young people will keep track of what the HRC is doing. Commissioner W. Comer: when we talk about building a social media campaign, what if we gather 4 or 5 young people to work together on that campaign? Then we have a group of young people to set that up and can hashtag and stuff like that. Commissioner Elmore: I think some of thing things that can help us out overall to reach out to young folks – some of us are involved with different mentoring programs. Talking about what we do, having them come to meetings, building more of a social media presence, outsourcing some of that, seeing if there are other small groups that we can put together and other organizations that can help us build that. There are a number of different organizations that like to get involved with stuff like this. It might take some legwork on our part to find who would be the best fit. I’m sure there is a group out there who would like to partner with us on that. Commissioner Young: how would we go about doing something like that if we were to solicit the help of community groups that would like to collaborate with us? Rachel Joy: The Commissioners can do that level of outreach directly and then come back to the staff to let us know what you need in a supportive role from staff. Commissioner W. Comer: I will definitely reach out to some young people that I know are very proficient in social media and are interested in working in government. Commissioner Young: Would Commissioner Shackelford be interested in heading that up? Commissioner Shackelford: Yes Commissioner Turner: targeting those people interested in government, perhaps the local college or high schools, perhaps one or two representatives from the Commission going to speak to one of those classes. Commissioner Bressner: we need to make sure that we’ve got some good marketing materials Rachel Joy: we have brochures but if you’re looking for additional things, maybe you would have a subcommittee working on that, that you could get to Sara for printing. Commissioner Young: Something like palm cards, quick fact palm cards where you could make four on a page. Anyone interested in marketing? Commissioner W. Comer: I would love to think on that. The more information you give to people the less likely they are to read it. I know someone who is proficient in marketing so I will take that to her. Commissioner Bressner: when promoting the Disability Resource Expo, we make bookmarks Commissioner Young: That’s a great idea. Maybe on one side you have listed out the protected classes or something like that. Wonderful job!

X. Audience Participation None

XI. Commissioners’ Comments Elmore: None Shackelford: None Bressner: None Felty: want to remind people that this coming Sunday, March 12 is the 11th showing of the documentary Racial Taboo. Please come to the McKinley Foundation on campus. Doors open at 2, film begins at 2:30, please contact the McKinley Foundation office to let them know who is coming. The film maker himself is coming from NC and we also have seven special guests coming from Decatur Turner: None W. Comer: None

XII. Adjournment 6:29 PM