Over four months ago, Check CU published an article which suggested that the Urbana Police Department’s Use of Force Review Board process was essentially a scam:
Urbana Police Use of Force Review – Total Scam?
After a series of public records requests over the course of several months in the spring of 2021, Check CU came to the following conclusions:
- The Urbana Police Use of Force Review Board has not been producing the required “written recommendations” and the Chief has not been producing the required “Chief of Police’s final findings” for 2018, 2019, or 2020.
- The City of Urbana cannot produce any evidence that Urbana Police Use of Force Review Board has been holding meetings to perform reviews in 2018, 2019, or 2020.
- The City seems very willing to violate the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to conceal the actions of the Urbana Police Use of Force Review Board.
- If the Use of Force Review Board has been reviewing, voting, and creating written findings for incidents as required by Policy 301, then the City is taking extensive (and unlawful) efforts to conceal that fact.
Check CU sent the same article and conclusions to the Urbana City Council immediately after publishing, seeking an explanation. After eighteen days, none of the City Council members had responded and the issue had not be raised at any City Council meetings even though there have been several discussions concerning police policies.
After additional follow up with the Council, only Ward 2 Alderman Christopher Evans responded. Evans indicated that he’d sent a list of questions to Chief Seraphin regarding the Use of Force Review Board. Evans sought answers about the Board such as who resides on the Board, how they process complaints, create reports, if the Board ever finds misconduct, and if the reports can be acquired via public records requests. To date, Check CU has not heard any answers from Alderman Evans.
Check CU made further efforts to seek explanations from the Council, and also published another article on this issue on October 2nd.
To date, no Urbana City Council member has been able to explain why the Urbana Police Department has not been following their Use of Force Review policy for years. Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and Deputy Chief Richard Surles, along with their Lieutenant Command staff David Smysor, Jason Norton, James Cory Koker, and Mattew Bain would have been primarily responsible for making sure that the Police Department follows its own Use of Force Review Policies.
The most recent data acquired by Check CU indicates that the following Urbana Police officers make up the Use of Force Review Board:
- Lieutenant David Smysor
- Sergeant Tim McNaught
- Detective Adam Marcott
- Detective Darrin McCartney
- Officer Andrew Hewkin
- Officer Colby Wright
All of these officers still work for the City of Urbana. Seraphin, Surles, and Smysor, as well as Norton, Koker and Bain were all reappointed by the Urbana City Council on June 28th, 2021. The following Urbana City Council members voted to reappoint these officers, despite them having schemed to defraud the residents of Urbana and repeatedly lie to the City Council and the public:
- Maryalice Wu: Yes
- Christopher Evans: Yes
- Shirese Hursey: Yes
- Jaya Kolisetty: Yes
- Chaundra Bishop: Yes
- James Quisenberry: Yes
- (Grace Wilken: No)
All of these City Council members campaigned largely on reforming policing, often specifically citing use of force policies and oversight. It is unclear why six out of seven chose to appoint police command staff who openly defraud and lie to the Council and the public, and why they continue to ignore the malfeasance that permeates through the Urbana Police Department.
Check CU will be issuing updates on this issue if any additional information becomes available.
NOTE: In the original version of this article, Check CU mistakenly indicated that Council member Grace Wilken voted “Yes” to reappoint the named police command staff. Check CU corrected the error within 48 hours of publishing. We apologize for the mistake.