In the wake of public outrage over a recent violent arrest video, a group of Urbana residents have accomplished in a weekend what police oversight advocates and police review boards have failed to do for decades: public outreach.
The website www.UrbanaPolice.com was launched on May 17, 2020 as a civilian resource site about the Urbana, Illinos Police Department. It includes a full directory of the Urbana Police Department, a feed of recent news articles related to the UPD, and an entire section devoted to police complaints.
The Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) was a topic of great debate before its founding in 2007, but after its formation it demonstrated itself to be minimally useful. The CPRB portion of the website attempts to ameliorate some of the failings of the existing and past board members by offering publicly accessible information and resources for filing police complaints.