Check CU recently published an article showing that the Urbana Police Department has been distributing a police complaint form that violates the Uniform Peace Officers’ Disciplinary Act.  The article also shows that the UPD has numerous similar unlawful complaint requirements listed on various webpages on the City website.

After a review of the most recent Urbana Fraternal Order of Police contract, which went into effect on July 1, 2020, it is also clear that the UPD has been violating their contractual obligations in regards to the same complaint forms and requirements.

The 2020 FOP contract removed a requirement that “Complaints against an officer must be signed and sworn by a person with personal knowledge of the incident and language will be included in the CPRB Ordinance that false complaints shall be subject to prosecution.”

A complaint form acquired from the Urbana Police Department on Thursday evening (March 3^rd, 2022) contains all of the same language that was supposed to be removed, and this form has been distributed by the UPD for at least the past twenty months – more than half of their 3 year FOP contract.  The same complaint form is provided under the Police section of the City website under “How to File a Complaint”.

According to the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the state law “allows for anonymous complaints against officers, without a sworn affidavit”, so it would not follow that any type of signature requirement, physical presence requirement, or even identification requirement could be prescribed by the Urbana Police Department. 

The violations are not limited to just the complaint form itself.  Multiple Urbana Police webpages indicate that the complainant must be an eyewitness and that the complaint “must be signed and notarized”.  The website twice directs complainants to bring photo ID when submitting a complaint.  The Policy and Procedures Manual under the “Citizen Police Complaint” section of the Urbana Police webpage says that a complainant must be a physically present eyewitness and they must sign an approved complaint form. 

Urbana City Officials heralded the removal of the sworn affidavit and physical presence requirements as wins for the people of Urbana when they voted to approve the new FOP contract, though it seems those advertisements were not valuable enough to justify follow-through.  Two clips from their September 13^th, 2021 meeting are shown below.

These violations of both state law and FOP contract raise other questions.  For example, in order to comply with state law, the Urbana FOP contract also removed requirements to destroy police disciplinary records.  If the UPD are continuing to destroy police complaints, reprimands, and disciplinary records (as they had been prior to the execution of the 2020 FOP contract and the change to state law), that could spell serious legal repercussions for the City.

The Urbana Police Department “Citizen Complaint Form” and webpages that describe complaint requirements can be viewed below (click image for full 18-page PDF).  Highlights performed by Check CU.  A full copy of the Urbana Police Department complaint form, acquired at the Urbana Police Station on March 3rd, 2022, is also provided.

Note: this article was updated on March 6^th to include more details and records related to the forms and the requirements stated on various Urbana webpages, as well as a short video of a City Council meeting.