|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
|
News :: Civil & Human Rights |
|
Public Hearing a success for police oversight supporters |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (verified)
Phone: 328-3037
Address: 801 E California, Urbana |
26 Jul 2006
Modified: 09:16:19 AM |
Supporters of a citizens panel to oversee police affairs filled the City Council chambers Monday night.
The Champaign County Coalition for Citizen Police Review is meeting Wed. July 26 at 7pm in the PRC Meeting Room of the IDF, corner of Wright and Springfield. All are welcome. |
(Urbana) Supporters of a citizens panel to oversee police affairs filled the City Council chambers Monday night, clearly demonstarting the depth and breadth of support for citizen oversight in Urbana. According to the News-Gazette there were about 50 supporters, who spoke for nearly three hours.
The outpouring of support was partly in response to a small group of opponents who turned out the week before at a previous public hearing on the subject. Most sang the praises of the police but had no specific objections to citizen oversight. The police union is entering contract negotiations with the city, and this sudden appearance of opposition to citizen oversight is being seen as chest-pounding in preparation for horse-trading.
Only two opponents spoke this Monday, neither of whom had read the proposal. "I'm opposed to anything that would make the job of the police harder," said one, without saying how citizen oversight would do this. Several supporters, on the other hand, spoke at length about how citizen review would also benefit the police: by increasing trust in the fairness of the system, building confidence in the police and improving police-community realtions. The meeting was clearly a resounding success in every
way for supporters of oversight.
Years of work, months of public discussion
The Champaign County Coalition for Citizen Police Review formed in 2001, after the NAACP, Urbana League and other groups failed to secure a civilian oversight panel in Champaign. A number of incidents including one death in police custody at that time had sparked the demand.
A few years ago activists turned their attention to Urbana, where many of them lived. At that time a majority on the Urbana City Council favored such a board, but the mayor did not. But with the last election, all that changed. The new mayor, Laurel Prussing, was a founding member of the Coalition, and after an almost complete turnover, the new city council was every bit as favorable - if not moreso.
The Mayor first led the City Council to fund three new positions on the police force, filling a long standing gap, then she established a Taskforce to study the details. The Coalition had a draft ordinance, but three years had intervened, and it was important for community leaders - and the police - to be part of writing the groundbreaking legislation.
The Taskforce met from October to June in open, public sessions, some of them reported on local TV news, all carried on UPTV. The current chief of police Mike Bily participate, as well as the then-president of the police union, Anthony Cobb.
It is the draft produced by that Taskforce that is currently undergoing public scrutiny and will hopefully be voted on within the next few weeks.
Next steps
There has been no announcement of a concrete time table for passage. What is know is that the City Council will discuss any ordinance at least twice before voting. Citizen input will be vital to that process - and to the ultimate effectiveness (based on credibility) of Urbana's citizen police review board.
The next meeting of the Coalition for Citizen Police Review will be at 7pm on Wednesday July 26 in the PRC Meeting Room, downstairs at the Illinois Disciples Foundation (IDF), corner of Wright and Springfield, Champaign. |
See also:
http://www.prairienet.org/cprb
http://www.city.urbana.il.us
|
This work is in the public domain |
