The Champaign Police Department will present a change to its citizen complaint process at Tuesday’s Champaign City Council study session.

An explanation of current policing strategies has been presented annually to the city council since 2007, but this is the first time the presentation will focus on changes within the Professional Standards office of the department, through which all citizen complaints are filtered.

“(A complaint will go) not only through the police department, but could possibly go through our Community Relations Department as well,” said Karen Foster, council member at-large. “So this is a huge change.”

With this revision, the Community Relations Office staff will serve an advisory role during the complaint process. The office offers recommendations and suggestions to the police department regarding each complaint before and during formal investigations, according to a city memorandum.

Foster said Tuesday’s presentation will most likely be of interest to the community, and could spark both positive and negative discussion from the audience during the study session.

“I hope (the feedback) is positive, but sometimes it works the other way,” Foster said. “As far as I’m concerned, I welcome the change and I will be very supportive of it.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected].