Chambana Sun

City of Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) met March 24.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM

∙ Ricardo Diaz called this meeting of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board to order. Roll was taken. A quorum was present.

2. APROVAL OF AGENDA

∙ Scott Dossett made a motion to approve the agenda. Katrina Kindle seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a roll call vote.

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

∙ Regular Meeting, December 17, 2020

∙ Regular Meeting, February 24, 2021

Scott Dossett made a motion to approve minutes for December 17, 2021. Tony Allegretti seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a roll call vote.

Scott Dossett made a motion to approve minutes for February 24, 2021. Tony Allegretti seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a roll call vote.

4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

∙ Christopher Hansen shared concerns with trends and case law that the CPRB has been developing over the past year or two. Katrina Kindle asked if Mr. Hansen had a list of specific dates for incidents or if his complaints were just general. Mr. Hansen did not have specific dates at this time, but would follow up with examples by email.

5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

a. Status of Complaints and Appeals

Carol Mitten provided an update on the status of complaints and appeals. The numbers are unchanged since the last meeting.

Chair Ricardo Diaz spoke about being prepared to do Taser reviews at the next meeting. He verified that Ms. Kindle, Mr. Allegretti and Mr. Rice had all completed the proper training. He also recommended that Scott Dossett and he went through a refresher of the training.

b. Discussion of changes to the qualifications for CPRB (specifically, exclusions of those with past felonies and past police department service)

Chair Ricardo Diaz reminded everyone that at the last meeting members voted to say that the Board recommend individuals with felonies be allowed to participate on the board and that two board members volunteered to go to a City Council meeting to speak about it. Carol Mitten asked for clarification on the purpose of bringing it up at a City Council meeting and board members stated that they just want to bring awareness that this is the intention. Scott Dossett and Tony Allegretti agreed to attend the April 5 City Council meeting to address it.

6. NEW BUSINESS

a. Discussion on what we, CPRB Board members, have learned from Hearings. Katrina Kindle has learned how to formulate her questions better to make them relevant. When she joined the Board, she was not familiar with all of the different sides in regards to complaints and appeals and she is learning to connect the pieces together.

Tony Rice agreed with Katrina’s comments about learning things as a new member. He was not familiar with processes when he became a new member, but he has become enlightened on how things work.

Chair Ricardo Diaz has learned how people can submit a complaint is very important. He had not realized how intimidating making a complaint directly to police officers about police officers could be. Chair Diaz also discovered that there is a need for developing a process of how to handle a complaint that is filed against the Chief of Police.

Scott Dosset shared his desire of creating a smoother process and movement of a complaint through the City structure.

Chair Ricardo Diaz expressed his thoughts on the need for a definition of what a FOIA procedure is and what it gives to people. His belief is a complainant should have as much information as possible about their complaint.

Katrina Kindle asked for a clarification on timing requirements associated with filing complaints and responding.

Chair Ricardo Diaz learned that any video related to a complaint gets frozen. There is a time limit on how long videos can be kept so there needs to be a time limit on when a citizen can file a complaint. He also spoke about how many factors can contribute to the delay of an investigation and there are parameters on when an investigation can be conducted.

Tony Allegretti discussed the importance of the Board members having all of the information and documentation related to a complaint and investigation before an appeal hearing.

Scott Dossett agreed with Mr. Allegretti and shared his desire to have a checklist of things that are routinely provided to Board members when a complaint comes in.

Chair Ricardo Diaz has learned that the categories for the way Board members vote in hearings are inadequate and should be updated.

b. Discussion of what is needed to attract new members to the CPRB Board. There are currently two vacant positions on the Board.

Tony Allegretti asked if Chair Diaz gets notified when someone applies. Chair Diaz said yes he does get notified and is invited to interviews. Mr. Allegretti also asked if the vacant spots are a problem of people not applying or something else.

Chair Diaz suggested visiting churches, sending out letters, or placing a Facebook ad.

Tony Allegretti asked if there had ever been a student on the Board and suggested looking into the possibility of reaching out to that demographic. Scott Dossett said there had not ever been a student on the Board. He suggested placing an ad in the Daily Illini.

Chair Ricardo Diaz asked how other Board members had been recruited to the Board. Answers included friends and Coworkers.

Scott Dossett said he would make a social media post encouraging people to apply. Chair Diaz said he would work on language that can be used to encourage people to apply and would announce the vacancies at different meetings.

c. Administrative review by the HREO/CPRB of citizens’ complaints.

Chair Ricardo Diaz expressed the importance of establishing a procedure.

Carol Mitten reviewed previous discussions regarding the tiering of complaints. She shared council input and Board members desire to be involved with this process. Ms. Mitten assured that nothing would be decided behind closed doors. She believes the board members are in a better position to recognize the need for this tiering system.

Scott Dossett thought that the only option at this point was to make a motion and discuss whether the ordinance should be amended to adopt a tiering procedure and that the Board should be more involved.

Carol Mitten suggested putting together a package reviewing discussions that have taken place in the past at CPRB meetings and Council meetings.

d. Use of Force enforcement policy discussion, final meeting on March 30, 2021. Chair Ricardo Diaz provided a recap of efforts to update the Use of Force policy and reminded Board members that the last meeting for those discussions would be March 30.

7. ANNOUNCEMENTS

a. Date for Taser reviews

Will most likely be a part of the meeting on April 28. Scott Dossett requested the Board take both cases from start to finish and the Board gets full documentation from those because most Board members have not reviewed one before.

b. Two CPRB vacancies (Resignation of Darrell Price)

Discussed previously in meeting.

c. Status of recruitment of new Human Rights and Equity Officer (HREO) 

Process hiring a new HREO is progressing.

d. CPRB Appeals Hearing Dates

City staff is working on establishing possible future hearing dates.

e. Next Regular Meeting Date: April 28, 2021

8. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

∙ Tracy Chong agreed that Board members having materials before hearings is a good idea. 

∙ Christopher Hansen added points to his case law discussed in the first session of public input. He also stated that citizens do not trust the board or the complaint process. 

∙ Emily Klose shared her disappointment that only one complaint has been filed in 2021. She believes it is because citizens do not trust the process.

9. ADJOURNMENT

∙ Scott Dossett made a motion to adjourn. Katrina Kindle seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m.

http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/APPROVED%20Minutes%203-24-2021.pdf