On August 8th 2019, a special meeting of the Champaign Citizen Review Subcommittee (CRS) was convened with one specific agenda item: open discussion with Chief Cobb about the CRS’s recommendations for changes to the police complaint process.
The Champaign Police Department has long been regarded as corrupt, racist, and violent, and the CRS was created to give a citizen’s oversight on police complaints. The review board, a subcommittee of the Champaign Human Relations Commission, had garnered very little attention after its creation in 2017. However, the review process has recently come under close scrutiny since Professional Standards Officer Tod Myers and Community Relations Manager Rachel Joy were caught stuffing complaints so that they would never be seen by the Citizen Review Board. Much to the chagrin of involved citizens, Chief Cobb promoted Myers to Deputy Chief shortly after the scandal.
The ordinance which created the CRS specifically tasks the 5 member board with making policy recommendations, and in May, after repeatedly hearing arguments from disenfranchised citizens, the CRS did exactly that. Chief Cobb had a matter of months to consider the recommendations and ask for clarifications from Chairwoman Emily Rodriguez, but when he spoke at the special meeting, Cobb acted as though he was hearing about everything for the first time.
The CRS made four recommendations:
- Completely eliminate time limitations on citizen complaints (the current limit being 30 days).
- Fold opportunities for mediation into the complaint hearing process.
- Humanize the complaint filing process by expanding filing options and allowing for anonymous complaints.
- Invite complainant participation and feedback at all times during the complaint process.
Chief Cobb expressed a great amount of concern about each item, but was rarely able to coherently state any constructive feedback. In previous meetings, the CRS had discussed how numerous other localities do not have any time constraints on the complaint process. The suggestion to completely remove time limits was unanimously accept by all CRS members, and also unanimously accepted by all members of the Champaign Human Rights Commission (HRC). At no point had any citizen, board member, employee, or official, indicate a desire to keep the time constraint. Cobb, however, was strangely preoccupied with the issue of police body camera footage only being kept for 90 days. Board members had to remind Cobb that the police complaint process pre-dates body cameras, and simply lacking one facet of detail is no cause for denying a complaint altogether. The Champaign Police Department has no requirement whatsoever that video evidence be necessary to report and investigate any other crime, and the policy on police complaints makes no mention of video being necessary.
Chief Cobb assigned great hesitation to the idea of a mediation process for complaints, indicating that he would likely not be able to control his officers’ compliance with the process. Cobb couldn’t even guess at how his officers might feel about a mediation process. Citizens attending the meeting pointed out the Cobb seemed to be out of touch with his own officers. Not a surprising revelation since some Champaign Officers recently took it upon themselves to covertly leak internal complaints about Cobb.
On the issue of anonymous complaints, Cobb was worried that his officers would be falsely accused. This may be the most ironic point Cobb put forth, as many of the complaints and lawsuits concerning Champaign Police have been in regards to false arrests, false charges, and falsified reports made by Champaign Officers. Again, CRS board members had to point out to Cobb that both Champaign Police and one of their sister groups, Champaign County Crime Stoppers, have always allowed for anonymous reporting.
Cobb also confused the citizen police complaint process with the criminal justice process, saying, “a person accused gets the right to face their accuser.” Chairwoman Rodriguez noted that the police complaint process is not akin to a criminal court: “Our subcommittee deals with professional standards…We are not legal experts. The outcome of our subcommittee: not is getting carted off to jail.” Board member Alexandra Harmon-Threatt also pointed out that the police could easily investigate an anonymous complaint in the same way that any other anonymous tip is investigated.
On the issue of complainant participation, citizens have complained that they have almost no involvement in the complaint process. A complainant will often submit a complaint and never receive any updates, status, or results. CRS board member Melissa Keeble said, “I feel like one thing we’ve heard repeatedly is the lack of updates along the way. When I look at these recommendations, I think, that’s one we can do!” The board also wanted to give the complainant the option to actually participate in the actual complaint hearing, but Chief Cobb argued that doing so would not allow for the hearing to be a hearing. Cobb did not explain why he thought police complaint hearings should be closed to the public.
As Chief Cobb was dodging and deferring questions, he cited the Illinois Police “Bill of Rights”, which is a 35 year-old law that essentially removes accountability from police officers. When Chairwoman Rodriguez asked him to explain more about the “Bill of Rights”, Cobb did not want to speak about it. Cobb went on to tell the board that they should ask “someone with a paygrade higher than mine”. However, with a total compensation of over $289,000 per year, Anothony Cobb is in fact the highest paid public official in all of Champaign County. Cobb later argued that he was not the highest paid official in Champaign, but eventually relinquished that he didn’t really know what he was saying.
Board members appeared disappointed with Chief Cobb’s minimal investment in their work. Citizens were not shy about expressing their disappointment either. After the meeting, when reporters and citizens asked Cobb why he didn’t have any clear answers for the board, Cobb tried to claim that the board kept changing their recommendations. However, nothing about the board’s list of recommendations had changed since May. Cobb appeared to be grasping at straws, and was also upset that the meeting was being recorded, saying that he was worried it may be put on YouTube.
Cobb’s performance and demeanor can best be summed up with one question he asked repeatedly in regards to the CRS reccommendations: “What’s in it for both sides?” Cobb has apparently forgotten that police officers actually work for the public.
Adalberto Toledo of the News-Gazette also reported on this meeting: https://www.news-gazette.com/news/champaign-police-chief-voices-concerns-with-citizen-review-panel-s/article_7101d0b3-10e7-5873-a023-bf5af26f951c.html
UPDATE: Chief Cobb Gives Smart Ass Response to Citizen Review Board Recommendations