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About Check CU
This non-profit site was established to aid in disseminating information about relevant issues in the Champaign-Urbana area. Transparency and access to public records is paramount to functioning government and since the public bodies within CU are failing in that regard, civilians must do the work. If you have files or documents that are of public interest, please consider sending them to Check CU so that we can make them publicly accessible.
-Christopher Hansen, Founder
Latest articles
Rantoul Officers Dispense Unlawful Complaint Forms
Rantoul Police Officer Marcus Beach provides a "Citizen Complaint Form" after a 30 minute wait. Check CU has been made aware of Rantoul Police Officers handing out police complaint forms which appear to violate Illinois State Law. On November 7th, 2021, Rantoul Police...
Urbana Mayor Claims Officers Never Struck Resident During Violent Arrest
After throwing her to the ground and punching her in the back of the head, Officers Michael Cervantes and James Cory Koker pin down a resident so that Officer Eric Ruff can knee her in the ribs. The City of Urbana has devoted considerable time and energy to debating...
Rantoul: Flock ALPR System Not Searchable for Efficacy
(click image to view full 3 page PDF) As public bodies in Champaign County, such as the City of Urbana, City of Champaign, the Champaign Sherriff’s Office, and the University of Illinois continue to consider and implement automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), the...
Urbana Pays $12,750 to Settle Open Meeting Act Lawsuit
City of Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin spent months actively muting residents for expressing opinions The City of Urbana offered to pay $12,750 for plaintiff’s attorney’s fees in order to bring an end to an Open Meetings Act (OMA) lawsuit which was filed on November 20th,...
Rantoul Officers Direct Police Complainants to Call METCAD 9-1-1
Rantoul Police Officer Marcus Beach (right) and Rikki McComas (distant left) outside of the Village of Rantoul Police Department building Check CU has recently become aware that Rantoul Police Officers are directing victims of police misconduct to call METCAD 9-1-1 to...
$5,000 FOIA Lawsuit Settlement by City of Champaign
Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Glover Bannon cost the City of Champaign $5,000 in legal fees after unlawfully concealing copies of human rights complaints. In the spring of 2021, Check CU published an article about denial of public records by the City of Champaign...
Urbana Police Use of Force Review Scam Ignored by City Council
The Urbana City Council reappointed police officials even after they repeatedly lied about conducting use of force reviews (Grace Wilken, Jaya Kolisetty, James Quisenberry, Diane Marlin, Maryalice Wu, Chaundra Bishop, Christopher Evans, Shirese Hursey) Over four...
Rantoul Officer Harasses Civilians for Walking Through Parking Lot
Village of Rantoul Police Officer Rikki McComas guards the parking lot east of the Police Department building from "all sorts of crimes" The Village of Rantoul Police Department appears to have a prized section of asphalt that may be off limits for pedestrians. ...
Flock Safety ALPR in Rantoul Captured Less Than 0.5% of Passing Vehicles
A Flock Safety automatic license plate reader (ALPR) failed to capture this motorcyclist passing by, along with hundreds of other vehicles On October 17th, Check CU visited the Village of Rantoul to observe the automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) that had been...
Urbana Police Flip Flop on ALPR Data Ownership
A clip from a presentation given by Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and ALPR salesman Dan Murdock at the September 20th Urbana City Council meeting (yellow highlighting added by Check CU) When Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and a representative from automatic...
Can Flock Safety ALPRs Capture Vehicles at Night?
During the past two months, the City of Urbana and the City of Champaign have held a number of meetings wherein the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) have been discussed. One issue that has been raised numerous times is the failure of normal...
Urbana Staff Make False Claims on ALPRs and FOIA
Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) photos provided by Rantoul Attorney David Wesner in response to a FOIA request (click image to see all 68 images in higher resolution) Nearly two months after Chief Bryant Seraphin pushed for the installation of automatic license...
Urbana Attorney Claims City Staff Shortage Caused OMA Violations
Attorney David Wesner addresses the Urbana City Council before his initial appointment to the position of City Attorney on March 8, 2021 On September 29th Check CU posted an article which described a stream of Open Meetings Act (OMA) violations by the Urbana City...
Urbana Staff Refuse Oversight on Police TASER Usage
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten interjects during a CPRB meeting, arguing that the Board is not allowed to perform TASER oversight. The September 22nd Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) meeting continued a theme that has been present at virtually every...
Champaign’s Tom Bruno Predicts License Plate Cameras will be Abused, Votes for them Anyways
At the October 5th Champaign City Council meeting, a lengthy discussion was held about the Champaign Police Department’s proposal to install 36 automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) at a cost of $189,000 for 2 years (view the full proposal here). A fair portion of...
Urbana Firefighter Exposes Mayor Marlin’s Abusive Employment Tactics
Check CU is in possession of a letter which was sent to the Urbana City Council on June 22nd this year, in regards to the Mayoral appointment process. The letter was sent by forcibly-retired Urbana Fire Department Division Chief Chad Hensch, and it sheds a...
Local ACLU Not Consulted on License Plate Cameras
Check CU has published a number of articles recently about the Urbana Police Department proposal to install a network of cameras to track vehicle movement throughout the City. These automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) photograph vehicles, and save the data (such...
OMA Violation: Cunningham Township Fails to Approve and Post Meeting Minutes for Six Months
While attempting to perform basic research, Check CU found that the Cunningham Township Board has failed to publicly display, and frequently failed to approve, its meeting minutes since March of this year. The Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) requires minutes of...
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