The Champaign City Council gets its first look during its study session on Tuesday evening (Jan. 24) at proposals for handling citizen complaints about police.
Those include a police review board that would review those complaints and how the city investigates them.
The City of Champaign has started gathering public input as it weighs whether to recommend forming a citizens police review board. Monday's meeting of the 14-member Citizens Review of Police Complaints Working Group was first of two this week. The 16 people who attended the first at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church cited concerns with they call an intimidating complaint process that needs to be better explained.
The Champaign City Council considered and rejected setting up a citizen police review board in 2007. Now, at a Tuesday night study session, it will hear a proposal to study the idea again --- through a “working group” set up by the police department.
Champaign City Council members Tuesday approved a second excessive force lawsuit settlement involving Police Officer Matt Rush, this one for $225,000, but only after an hour of emotional public comments and a march by activists through the downtown streets, calling for Rush to step down and face criminal charges.
