On May 5th, 2020, Mayor Diane Marlin announced that she will be accepting applications for a vacant seat on Urbana’s Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB). Grace Mitchell, the Chair of the CPRB, and a member of the group since its founding in 2007, has resigned her position after widespread criticism…
“I witnessed a poor review of police conduct at last week’s City Council meeting” A publicly presented “review” by Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and Lt. Jason Norton at the April 27th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting has begun to draw more public scrutiny than the violent arrest that prompted…
The emergency order unanimously pass by Urbana City Council on March 16th 2020 continues to come under scrutiny by citizens. We’ve just received notice that since Mayor Diane Marlin has shut down all citizen access to the services offered at the Urbana City Building, citizens now cannot submit police or…
The follies and tribulations of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) process continue to add up at virtually every meeting or action of the board and related City staff. Communications from a citizen show that “Community Relations Specialist” Preston James failed to mail required documents to a complainant after…
On January 29, 2020, the Urbana Civilian Review Board (CPRB) held a special appeals hearing meeting for Complaint 2019-06. The appeals hearing is part of the civilian police complaint process – the mechanism by which civilians can file complaints concerning Urbana police conduct. The CPRB is tasked with hearing appeals…
The September 25th, 2019 meeting of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) was unique in many ways. It was a “special meeting” called with the apparent goal of diluting the review powers of the CPRB. During this meeting, Urbana Police Lieutenant Richard H Surles attempted to persuade board members…
After several months of criticism from engaged residents, members of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) are finally beginning to realize what everyone else has been saying: the CPRB is broken. At the January 22nd, 2020 CPRB meeting, founding member Scott Dossett did not mince words. “We are negligent…
On January 22, 2020, the Urbana Civilian Review Board met to review a recent Taser discharge and continue the discussion initiated at the last meeting regarding the citizen complaint process. Ricardo Diaz, Scott Dossett, Mikhail Lyubansky, Darius White, and Darrell Price formed the quorum. Chairperson Grace Mitchell and Megan McGinty…
Urbana City Council meetings ran long on November 25th and December 2nd of 2019 as a result of discussion on one particular agenda item: armed “school resource officers” in Urbana schools. At both meetings, members of the public, Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin, and Council members spoke at length. The…
At the October 23rd, 2019 meeting of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB), it was revealed that board members had not been receiving copies of citizen police complaints for the past several years. Apparently, the Urbana Police Department simply stopped issuing copies to the board, and neither City staff…
