On April 14th, 2022 Check CU reported that the Urbana, Illinois Police Department (UPD) had ceased use of force review in September of 2021 – immediately after getting their new Fraternal Order of Police contract pushed through City Council.
New records acquired from the City of Urbana show that the Police Department is still refusing to track use of force by officers. A spreadsheet provided by FOIA Officer Ross McNeil on May 19th, 2022 shows a list of incidents, but no dates, officer names, or any detail about the type of force used. There were no supervisor reviews or Use of Force Review Board reviews.
The number of use of force incidents on the 2022 spreadsheet is also about half of what would be expected based on prior years. Either the UPD has substantially reduced use of force in the past six months, or the provided list is incomplete.
At this point, the Urbana Police Department has been refusing to properly track use of force for nearly nine months. Check CU informed the Urbana City Council of our findings on April 14th, 2022 but none of the Council members responded or took action.
This disregard on the part of the Urbana Police Department (UPD) would be consistent with another discovery made by Check CU last year – that the UPD’s Use of Force Review Board has not actually been meeting or reviewing incidents at all:
Urbana Police Use of Force Review – Total Scam?
The Urbana Police Department 2021 use of force log provided by Ross McNeil on May 19th is provided below. It should be noted that McNeil unlawfully denied our request for the use of force log, but eventually provided the record more than one month later.
Urbana, Illinois Police Department 2022 Use of Force Log (provided on May 19, 2022).xlsx