On July 29th, 2020 the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) held a special meeting to undergo “use of force training”. The training was administered by Dr. Michael Schlosser from the University of Illinois Police Training Institute in the form of a slideshow presentation.
CPRB members, as well as members of the public, who also attended the meeting, were not impressed. Schlosser painted a broad and generally agreeable picture of police use of force decisions, but board member Ricardo Diaz did not feel that it represented how police actually operate.
Schlosser frequently employed what he calls “dad jokes” to attempt to charm the board members, but CPRB Chair Mikhail Lyubansky said that he thought the board needed something more technical to be able to competently review police incidents.
Schlosser sometimes contradicted himself as he attempted to negotiate his way through the post-Floyd view of policing. He claimed to dislike the notion that problems in policing are just caused by “a few bad apples”, but later was dismissive about the possibility of police misconduct in Champaign County, arguing that it only happens in “other cities”. Schlosser’s incongruence was quickly made apparent by public attendees.
Pretending to illustrate a “hypothetical” incident, a member of the public described to Schlosser the 2015 arrest of Christopher Hansen (thoroughly documented on www.corruptcu.com) with great detail. The false arrest involved Champaign Police and U of I Police, two departments chock-full of officers trained by Schlosser. The officers refused to identify themselves or explain why they’d stopped Mr. Hansen, and instead went directly to pointing guns, issuing threats, and smashing his car window.
Dr. Schlosser’s response to this “hypothetical” Champaign arrest:
“I think your scenario could happen in, I can see it happening in…I won’t name any cities, maybe in different cities with different cultures. I don’t think our culture of policing in this area is like that, so I don’t think you have to worry about anything like that at all.”
As it happens, Christopher Hansen was attending the meeting. He called out Schlosser’s incompetence, and told Schlosser, “maybe keep an eye on your own backyard.”
The July 29th, 2020 meeting of the CPRB can be viewed here:
