The Champaign Police Department presented changes to its citizen complaint process, outlined during the department’s annual presentation of policing strategies, at Tuesday’s Champaign City Council study session.
The Professional Standards Office within the police department settles all citizen complaints, but new changes will allow the city’s Community Relations Department to play a role, according to a city memo.
The revisions to the citizen complaint process came after a recommendation from the Champaign Community Coalition, police Lt. Jon Swenson said. The changes will be implemented in about 45 days.
“In general terms, the change to the complaint process is the fact that the Community Relations Department is going to begin serving an advisory role,” Swenson said. “That’s going to be accomplished in many different ways.”
Police Chief Anthony Cobb said he hopes the changes will help keep the police department “transparent” and “accountable.”
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Under the revisions, the CRD staff will offer recommendations and guidance to the police department throughout the duration of complaint investigation, and a complaint review committee will be formed. The committee will be composed of senior members of the police department and members of the CRD, Swenson said.
“(We will be) identifying witnesses, conducting interviews, (viewing) videos that need to be reviewed,” Swenson said. “We’re in agreement for what’s going to be done. We’ll cover that at the front end of every complaint.”
In 2012, the police department had 71,710 calls for service with 18 complaints and 28 allegations, mostly consisting of allegations of rudeness and discourtesy by police officers to citizens, Swenson said.
“The way to be proactive is to have a good rapport with our community at all times,” Cobb said. “Even though these steps are in place, there’s always room for improvement. The complaints process is trying to figure out what went wrong, and how we can do it better.”
Swenson said he would like the community to recognize that the police department is “getting it right” the majority of the time.
“We’re human beings, we’re not perfect,” Swenson said. “We will never be perfect.”
Council members reacted positively to the proposed changes, with comments to Cobb and Swenson expressing gratitude after the presentation.
“You’ve identified a problem, and you’ve created a fix,” said Council Member Paul Faraci, District 5. “I think we all appreciate that.”
Emma can be reached at [email protected].
