At the November 2nd, 2020 City Council Meeting, Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten pushed ahead with her plan to excluded certain types of complaints from the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) appeal process.
A week prior, Mitten presented an update on the status of CPRB complaints and appeals. She focused on the dramatic increase in Urbana Police Department (UPD) civilian complaints in 2020 and the impact of City resources from the complaints. Mitten asked City Council to amend the CPRB Ordinance to exclude what she considered less significant complaints (article here).
The CPRB has been in the spotlight for many months. Numerous residents have voiced concerns about the shortcomings of the CPRB, and the lack of public trust in the complaints and appeals process (article here).
Yet, Mitten’s suggestions to Council were designed to lessen civilian oversight of police complaints. She proposed that complaints received by the Urbana Human Relations Office (HRO) be separated into two categories based on the seriousness of these complaints.
Complaints that are classified as “less significant” will be channeled directly to UPD and are not eligible to be appealed before the CPRB. According to Mitten, only more “serious” complaints should be eligible to engage the CPRB appeal process.
Carol Mitten’s proposal to Council can be viewed here:
Council members had concerns regarding the subjective criteria on how complaints would be categorized and suggested that more research needed to be done to define the categories.
Council members Bill Brown and Maryalice Wu echoed residents calling for more civilian oversight over the complaints and appeals process. Both Wu and Brown were in favor of CPRB members, and not City staff categorizing the complaints.
Mitten however, brought up concerns about the capacity of CPRB members, despite CPRB themselves voicing their willingness to shoulder the responsibility of civilian oversight.
“I worry about their availability because I have also been scheduling them. So, I think they are open to doing the work, I just worry about their capacity,” says Mitten.
The full CPRB discussion during November 2nd, 2020 City Council Meeting can be viewed here:
