At the June 1st, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting, the Council and the public spent hours speaking about local police misconduct issues. Most commentary focused on the violent arrest of Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis in April, and on the broken status of the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) which is supposed to have oversight of such incidents.
Scott Dossett, the only remaining founding member of the CPRB to still serve on the board, spoke up during public input to announce that he felt that failures of the CPRB were mostly due to the performance of Urbana’s Human Relations Officer, Vacellia Clark.
A review of the eight page ordinance (City of Urbana City Code, Section 19-20 Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB)) which creates and regulates the activities of the CPRB, shows that the Human Relations Officer is tasked with many duties vital to the operation of the board.
For months, residents have complained about Clark failing to perform even her most basic job duties. In May, a resident filed a discrimination complaint against Clark for discriminating and retaliating against complainants, thereby selectively determining which police complaints she would accept from residents. Other residents have found that their CPRB complaint forms were ignored or denied by Clark for spurious reasons.
Residents have also noted that Clark hasn’t prepared basic documentation required for the CPRB for the past 13 years, and she hasn’t actually attended a CPRB meeting in several years.
The biggest question is: why does Mayor Marlin, the City Council, and City administrative staff put up with such incompetence? The unfortunate answer, it seems, is that no one within the City of Urbana actually wants to see the Civilian Police Review Board to operate as intended. Engaged residents argue that the board was designed to be a “rubber stamp” for the Urbana Police Department, and nothing more.