After concerned residents issued complaints and concerns about Urbana Police Department misconduct for the sixth City Council meeting in a row, Council members are finally show some movement, if only an inch.
At the May 18th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting , Council member Bill Brown called for a review of the reporting requirements of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB). This request came after numerous residents argued that the CPRB is not only ineffective in its codified capacity, but that the board hasn’t even been following its own ordinance, including requirements to issue reports to Council.
According to Section 19-20 of the City Code, the CPRB is required to issue annual reports to the Mayor and City Council, as well as quarterly status reports on ongoing or pending investigations. No such reports have been issued since 2014.
The CPRB has numerous other shortcomings, many of which were listed by engaged residents during public input at the past several Council meetings. It is not clear by Bill Brown only wanted to discuss reporting requirements, but the growing expectation is that the CPRB is due for an overhaul in the near future.
The CPRB reporting requirements review which was proposed by Brown and seconded by Maryalice Wu, is to be held at Urbana’s June 1st City Council meeting.
The entire Zoom recording of the May 18th, 2020 Urbana City Council Meeting can be seen here:
