Champaign Police: Coffee with a Cop and More

I attended last month's Coffee with a Cop event, held quarterly throughout the year by the Champaign Police Department. For those who are unfamiliar with how these events work, it's about as simple as going to the café where they're holding it and then ordering a cup of coffee. 

Photograph from Champaign Police

Their most recent event was held at Martinelli’s Market on the north side of Downtown Champaign. The clerk asked if I was with the event when I ordered my coffee which made it free for me. The City of Champaign's budget mentions this as part of its outreach budget (just see all the search hits for "coffee").

From there, one can approach any of the officers or department officials or simply have a seat with them. They're used to fielding questions and concerns regardless from a variety of perspectives (even critical ones). From WCIA's coverage of the event:

On Tuesday, some Champaign citizens sat down with not only a hot cup of coffee, but someone to talk to. It was the first Coffee With a Cop event of the year for the Champaign Police Department.

Champaign Police orchestrate these social gatherings at least once every quarter. The program is designed for officers and community members to interact and discuss concerns.

“It’s something that humanizes our officers; it builds relationships. A crisis is the wrong time to be handing out business cards, so establishing those relationships upfront is essential to the work that we do,” said Joe Lamberson, CPD’s Public Information Officer.

That full blurb here. For general information on the Champaign program, see their webpage on the City's website here. If you're interested in the next event coming up this summer, you can follow their social media feed on facebook or Twitter. I'd recommend signing up for the City of Champaign's Champaign Insider newsletter myself, but I follow a lot of local events. Either way you'll probably get at least a few weeks heads up on the next event's specific location and other details.

Like many outreach programs, you tend to get what you put into it. If you have serious questions and concerns, you can bring those with you. Folks may not always like the answers, but you might get some insight into other perspectives. If you're interested in seeing out the department uses its outreach resources, you can do that to. If you just want to have a friendly chat and offer your support or well-wishes, officers surely wouldn't mind that either.

Other Champaign Police Updates:

• Today is the last day for public input for the Champaign Police Department's ILEAP accreditation. More from WCIA coverage here. Additional information from the City's website here.
  
  
• Remember there are always police chief updates at the Champaign County Community Coalition every month, including crime and gun violence updates. Previous meetings are archived here.
  
  
• There was a reminder about the major factor that opportunity plays in property crime in this month's Champaign Insider. Remember to Lock It! Hide It! Keep It!
  
  
• Updates on the Champaign-Urbana Rising Star program and collaboration, including the Champaign Police.
  
  
• One of the questions I had answered during the event was on the return of the Citizen Police Academy program. This was a free outreach program offered through the Police Training Institute on campus. It was a popular initiative prior to the pandemic that allowed members of the public to get a detailed look at the local departments and training. Be on the lookout for updates as we approach the fall semester!

Unit 4 Special Meeting and Updates

 

Photos provided by Natalie Schneider

Heads Up! There is a Special Meeting of the Champaign Schools Unit 4 Board of Education next week on April 9th to interview applicants for the two vacancies on the same school board.  There were 26 applicants for the two vacancies according to the News-Gazette (WCIA coverage here). After our last Unit 4 updates in March looked at the controversies surrounding the district and the resignation of board vice president Jamar Brown, there was an addition resignation of another board member. From the News-Gazette last month:

For the second time in two weeks and a day, a Champaign school board member has resigned after serving less than a year in office.

On March 4, it was Jamar Brown, who said months of “mistrust, missteps and misinformation” had left him seeing “no value” in continuing.

Tuesday night, it was a similarly frustrated Mark Thies, who in a letter to board members and Superintendent Shelia Boozer said he’s come to realize ”that my vision is not aligned with the future direction and initiatives of Unit 4.”

That full article here including some details of Thies' resignation letter that mirrored Jamar Brown's concerns about a lack of respect and trust. WCIA had the full text of Thies' resignation letter here. WCCU had some responses from parents as well here. WCCU had an additional interview with board member Betsy Holder about her concerns with the district and a response from Board President Dr. Gianina Baker.

Next week there is a regular school board meeting scheduled on Monday evening, as well as an additional special meeting for interviewing applicants for the board's vacancy on the next evening on Tuesday.

More March Meetings:

Since our last update there was a March 20th special meeting to address the process of appointing people to the two open seats on the board (video here, agendas here). There was a number of public comments before the board president laid out that process. The timeline and other details were discussed and agreed to by the remaining board members. WCIA's coverage of that meeting is here. WAND's coverage specifically covered the citizen complaints and concerns about transparency here.

There was another regular meeting that was cancelled shortly after it began on March 25th. This caused a great deal of confusion for members of the public who found themselves locked out of the building. While the meetings begin at 5pm, there is a closed session at the beginning of Champaign board of education meetings to discuss employment and disciplinary issues. The main public portion of the meeting generally doesn't start until after 6pm.

The very beginning of the meetings, before entering the closed "executive session" is technically public, but it is generally not included in the meeting videos. Few (if any) members of the public show up for the brief call to order and vote to go into the closed session, which would also mean waiting for an hour or more in an empty room while the board meets privately.

The News-Gazette had coverage on the walk outs and confusion after the meeting.

Amy Armstrong said she’d asked twice in the past six days — once in a meeting, then again in a Monday morning email to President Gianina Baker — that the item calling for the special election of a new board vice president be tabled until the board was back to full strength.

When Baker declined to pull it at the start of Monday’s meeting, Armstrong walked out, followed by fellow member Betsy Holder.

With only three members left at the Mellon Administrative Center — Baker, Heather Vazquez and Bruce Brown — the meeting was called off for lack of a quorum... 

But with no meeting, there was no public comment session, leaving them to air their frustrations outside. 

That full article here. WCIA had similar coverage and explanation of events:

The seven-person board currently has two vacancies. With less than four members, the board cannot meet in order to be compliant with Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.

The two members, Amy Armstrong and Betsy Holder, walked out of the meeting after Armstrong objected to the agenda since it contained an item for electing a new Vice President. Jamar Brown, who served as vice president, resigned from the board earlier this month.

Only three members were in attendance after Holder and Armstrong left. With no way to continue, the meeting was cancelled.

That full article here. According to at least one of the school board members that walked out on social media afterwards: the doors had been unlocked for the public at 5pm and members of the public were inside when the initial open session was called to order. There appears to be questions as to what exactly the quorum rules dictated if the meeting began with a quorum, but no longer had one afterward. For example, could there have been public comment, even if there weren't enough members present to vote on action items. A hurdle there would be whether or not they could even approve the agenda to get to that point.

Other Updates on Unit 4 Controversies:

• Illinois Public Media had an updated (as of April 1st) overview of the Unit 4 controversies here.
  
  
• The News-Gazette had coverage of the lawsuit surrounding the transfer of Booker T. Washington STEM Academy Assistant Principal Rebecca Ramey here. She claims that it was retaliatory, specifically against her wife's criticism of the Superintendent. Coverage of Unit 4's response and denials of the claims here.
  
  
• One of Unit 4's Deputy Superintendents will be returning to the Urbana school district for an administrative position there, according to the News-Gazette. The article notes that this is the latest in a number of recent moves from Champaign schools to Urbana's District 116.
  
  
• The News-Gazette published its own criticisms and opinion on the Unit 4 controversies in an editorial on March 16th.