Check CU recently published an article showing that the civilian complaint forms dispensed by the Rantoul Police Department violate state law because the forms require the complainant to sign a sworn affidavit and have the form notarized.

The Uniform Peace Officers’ Disciplinary Act explicitly states that police complaint forms cannot have any type of “sworn affidavit” requirement:

(50 ILCS 725/3.8) (b) It shall not be a requirement for a person filing a complaint against a sworn peace officer to have the complaint supported by a sworn affidavit or any other legal documentation.

After reviewing the unlawful complaint form, Check CU sent a FOIA request to the Village of Rantoul to determine if any other variations of police complaint forms may exist.  Village Attorney David Wesner furnished a 2021 Rantoul Police Complaint Form, which is rather different from the complaint form dispensed by Rantoul Officer Marcus Beach on November 7^th, 2021.

The new 2021 Rantoul Police Complaint form removes the notary requirement, but still has a line for the complainant’s signature.  The form itself leaves it ambiguous if the signature is required to file a complaint.

However, the 2021 Rantoul Police Citizen Complaint Form Instructions, also provided by Wesner, do not leave the complaint form requirements ambiguous.  The instructions state:

“Use this form to file a complaint against a Rantoul Police Officer or member of the Rantoul Police Department. Please fill out completely. The form, which serves as an affidavit and notifies that filing a false complaint information could subject the complainant to criminal and civil liability, must be signed in order for the matter to be investigated as a formal complaint. Absent a signed affidavit, the complaint may be investigated as an informal complaint, in which the complainant forfeits the written notification of disposition.”

It seems that the Rantoul Police Department has simply removed an unlawful requirement from their old complaint form, and shifted it to their new complaint form instructions. 

The legal language for prohibiting a sworn affidavit requirement in Illinois police complaints was publicly known at the beginning of 2021, if not earlier.  The language was in Illinois House Bill 3653 (also known as the Police and Criminal Justice Reform Bill, and the SAFE-T Act), now Public Act 101-0652 after being signed by Governor Pritzker on February 22^nd, 2021.

It is hard to conclude that extracting the sworn affidavit requirement from their complaint form and shifting it into their complaint form instructions is anything other than a flagrant attempt to skirt the new state law.

The instructions do say that “absent a signed affidavit, the complaint may be investigated as an informal complaint”.  It is notable that the Rantoul Police Department used the word “may” here, rather than “shall”.  The sentence could easily be interpreted to mean that the complaint may not be accepted as a complaint at all.

The complaint form instructions also list the following requirement:

“A complaint may only be filed by individuals who have first-hand knowledge of alleged misconduct by a Rantoul Police Officer or department employee, except that minors must be represented by a parent or guardian.”

This requirement would also appear to be in conflict with state law.  According to the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the new state law “allows for anonymous complaints against officers, without a sworn affidavit”.  It would not follow that a police department could inflict rules about who may or may not file a complaint about a particular incident, if complaints can be submitted anonymously. 

At this time, it is unknown if the new 2021 complaint forms were in existence on November 7^th last year when Rantoul Officer Marcus Beach dispensed what is now known to be a 2017 variation of the Rantoul Police complaint form.  Either Officer Beach dispensed the wrong form, or Rantoul PD created a brand new complaint form almost immediately after the November 7^th incident.  Check CU is investigating the issue further.

A history of Rantoul Police Complaint Form variations, dating back to 2010, can be viewed here.