City of Champaign Updates

This post covers several December updates on the City of Champaign's plans for dealing with gun violence with technology, services, and includes a few other City related updates. Tonight's Human Relations Commission meeting and tomorrow's City Council meeting have been canceled according to the City calendar (see the December 28th and January 4th meeting cancellation notice here). I don't have any updates on what the in-person versus remote meeting situation may be by the next meeting on January 11th.

The City of Champaign approved its amended Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) plan, which will go into effect early this year. From the News-Gazette:

The council approved a contract with Flock Safety that would see a total of 46 license-plate readers installed for two years at a total cost of at least $240,500, along with a year of the company’s acoustic sensors covering a 1.3-mile area around the Garden Hills neighborhood at no additional cost...

According to a draft policy manual from the Champaign Police Department that was approved at the meeting, the department would use the devices to identify license-plate numbers “associated with stolen vehicles, wanted subjects, missing persons, Amber Alerts or other criteria as determined by a deputy chief of police.”

The devices “may also be used to gather information related to active warrants, homeland security, electronic surveillance, suspect interdiction, stolen property recovery, or other legitimate law enforcement purposes,” the draft said, adding they “shall not be used to enforce registration violations or city ordinance violations.”

More at the full article here. An earlier preview of the plan and placements in the News-Gazette included maps comparing past shooting incidents and proposed ALPR locations. WCIA's coverage also highlighted plans for a gunshot detection system.

The City of Champaign approved a "Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint" that includes a variety of measures to deal with gun violence and its underlying causes. From Illinois Newsroom:

The city’s new Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint infuses $3.2 million in the first year into existing efforts from the housing authority, school district, reentry groups and more.

It also aims to fill gaps in Champaign services compared to other cities. For example, the city would hire two street outreach workers, who would mentor and mediate conflicts between people at risk of becoming shooters or shooting victims.

This money comes from the American Rescue Plan. Mayor Deborah Feinen said that the pandemic relief dollars give the city a chance to find more.

Full article here. An overview of the blueprint is available in the Study Session report on the City of Champaign's website here. The News-Gazette also had a Q&A article on the City's new Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) plan that will go into operation this year. The News-Gazette also had an overview of the plan ahead of the vote here. Excerpt:

The nearly $3.2 million for the first year would include grants to the Champaign school district, Carle Foundation Hospital, First Followers, Crime Stoppers, Youth and Family Peer Alliance, DREAAM program, East Central Illinois Youth for Christ and STEAM Genius, Champaign County Housing Authority YouthBuild program, and CU Trauma and Resilience Initiative, along with funding for research, evaluation and monitoring.

Costs for the second year are unknown, but city staff members are advising retaining an additional $3 million of the federal funding for Year 2.

Full News-Gazette article here. WCIA's coverage included a preview, meeting coverage and public input at the meeting here.

Illinois Newsroom had some coverage following up on the "tiny homes" issue in Champaign with some local reactions and concerns with the Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and how they may change the character of their neighborhoods. There was a study session on the topic covered in November's Cheat Sheet post on Champaign here.

More City of Champaign related news:

• City staff helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for the United Way according to the News-Gazette.
• The city is offering disposal service for Christmas trees. From WCIA. C-U tree disposal information from Smile Politely here.
• WCIA had a brief overview of discussions on improving the police hiring process earlier in December.
• A reminder that you can still "Adopt a Drain" to help mitigate local flooding.