City of Champaign Updates: Police Reform and 2/2 Meetings

This post has an overview of last week's City government meetings as well as preview of this week's critical Champaign City Council Study Session on Tuesday, February 9th (agenda, staff report) on police reform in the City of Champaign. It is the culmination of over a decade of efforts by activists, community members, public officials, city and police staff towards building trust and implementing reforms.

Next week's Study Session report has an overview of the historical context, community responses, and recent outreach soliciting public input for police reforms and policy. It notes the hundreds of work-hours by City and CPD staff for the work that went into the listening sessions, other work and the reports themselves. There is also an extremely detailed set of attachments that document those efforts:

• Attachment A: Dr. Travis Dixon’s final report on the City of Champaign’s Listening Sessions (page 21 of the PDF file)
• Attachment B: Roster of study circle participants and community facilitators (page 25 of the PDF file)
• Attachment C: Study circle notes (page 28 of the PDF file)
• Attachment D: Responses to the online questionnaire (page 68 of the PDF file)
• Attachment E: Citizen Review Subcommittee’s 2020 Annual Recommendations (page 78 of the PDF file)

The full Study Session report is available here. The first page has links to over a decade of Study Session reports on police issues and reforms discussed by the City Council and then begins a summary of all the information provided in the report. An extensive background report starts at page 3 of the PDF file with historical context and on to the efforts to solicit public input. It asks the Council for direction on how to proceed: either more research into possible solutions, or focusing on certain reforms or policies to implement.

There was a portion relevant to a recent reform bill passed by the Illinois State General Assembly and likely to be signed by the Governor into law soon. The omnibus bill covered various criminal justice, police, and bail reforms. From the Study Session report on page 4: 

Among other things, [Bill HB 3653] would eliminate cash bail for non-violent offenders, requires all police officers to wear body cameras, expands use of force guidelines and training requirements for police, expands prohibits on chokeholds, requires permanent maintenance of police misconduct records, creates a uniform system of police certification and de-certification, and authorizes the Attorney General’s Office to investigate and prosecute patterns and practices of unconstitutional policing. 

Many of the bill’s amendments have already been implemented by the City of Champaign Police Department, for example the use of body worn cameras. The Police Department and City Legal are working together to fully understand what is required to implement the provisions of the new legislation. Specifically, staff is working to identify existing City policies or practices that will need to be amended to comply with the changes in the law. Most of the impact to local police departments apply to police conduct, training requirements and new processes to be established by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board related to certification and labor relations.

There are a couple recent Cheat Sheet posts on the local reaction to this bill, from the County Sheriff to organizations who supported bail reform locally like the Champaign County Bailout Coalition. The report also highlighted and overviewed the "One-Door" pilot program in Urbana as a possible source of future information and possible policy options on page 13.

February 2nd Meetings Overview:

The February 2nd meeting included a City of Champaign Township meeting (agenda, video), a regular City Council meeting (agenda, video), and a post-meeting Study Session meeting (staff report, video). 

The Township meeting was fairly brief. There was some further public input concerning the use of funds for a mailer that highlighted Township services, but also highlighted the incumbent Township Supervisor candidate so close to a contested election. There was a vote approving a budget amendment that related to the Township's collaboration with the health district and related grant funding.

The regular City Council meeting renewed, with minor amendment, the ongoing Emergency Orders related to the pandemic, approved funding for additional METCAD staffing, and approving the use of ballot drop-boxes in future elections.

Public input ranged from concerns about the City addressing police reforms (which the Mayor noted would be the topic of next week's Study Session) to the promotion of a municipal candidate's forum and a write-in bid for City Council. Local activist Allan Max Axelrod hinted at unscrupulous efforts by local power brokers attempting to pre-empt reform messages and undermine independent media. Regular public speaker, Brian Dunn encouraged the city to embrace stakeholders and impacted community members as leaders for police reform efforts.

The post-meeting Study Session was primarily a presentation on the Champaign Center Partnership's budget and work plan by the Executive Director Xander Hazel. There was a slide show presentation in the meeting video to go along with the Study Session report. The report had a succinct description of what the CCP is and does:

The Champaign Center Partnership is a 501(c)(6) organization formed in 2010 through the Champaign Downtown Association and the Campustown Business Group merger. The merger was to avoid duplication in services, create new efficiencies, and improve communication between center city businesses. Additionally, the group attempted to solidify Downtown, Midtown, and Campustown's marketing and work closely with the City to achieve adopted City goals for the areas.

The report has an overview of the work plan and budget proposed going forward. The presentation gets into some more of the details of coping with the pandemic over the past year. Council questions and council comments began after the presentation at roughly the 52 minute mark here. Mostly the council offered its willingness to help businesses re-open while thanking and praising CCP and especially Hazel for his work with the City over the years.