by Check CU | Jul 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten (right) yells at Check CU reporter Christopher Hansen (left) for attempting to audio record an official Urbana City Council meeting. Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten showed flagrant contempt for the people’s right...
by Check CU | Jul 27, 2022 | Latest Articles
Octapharma Plasma representative Kerry Clish (center) is appealing the business type designation of “clinic”, arguing that plasma centers are not similar to other types of clinics. The North Carolina plasma collection business Octapharma Plasma, Inc. has...
by Check CU | Jul 24, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten and past City Attorney James Simon have spent part of their careers ensuring that discrimination complaints are never processed by the City After Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten unlawfully overthrew the...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
Ward 5 Alderwoman Chaundra Bishop was one of four Council members who voted in favor of the County’s jail expansion The Urbana, Illinois City Council voted 4 to 3 tonight to approve an expansion of the Champaign County satellite jail by more than fifty percent...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
The Urbana, Illinois City Council unanimously reappointed Anthony Allegretti and Tony Rice (left top and bottom) to the Civilian Police Review Board, despite repeated past misconduct while serving on the Board On June 27th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council voted...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
On July 5th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council was presented with a plan for expanding the Champaign County jail, which resides within the City limits. The jail expansion plan would be expensive, and it would increase the total number of jail beds from 141...
by Check CU | Jul 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
County Board member Jim McGuire tours the Champaign, Illinois County jail On Tuesday, July 5th, the Urbana Illinois City Council Committee of the Whole voted to send a County jail expansion plan forward to the July 11th meeting for a final vote. The proposed...
by Check CU | Jun 22, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Attorney was reappointed by the City Council for an additional two years The Urbana, Illinois City Council has opted to reappoint David Wesner as City Attorney, despite his reputation for getting municipalities into legal trouble with dubious...
by Check CU | Jun 22, 2022 | Latest Articles
At a cost of more than $330,000, Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten was appointed for an additional two years The Urbana, Illinois City Council has opted to reappoint the same, often unpopular, City Administrator, Carol Mitten, for an additional two...
by Check CU | May 25, 2022 | Latest Articles
Interim Police Chief Richard Surles (bottom left) and Interim Deputy Police Chief Matt Bain (bottom right) have continued the effort led by recently resigned Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (bottom center) to reduce police oversight in Urbana, Illinois (photo taken at...
by Check CU | Apr 13, 2022 | Latest Articles
More than eleven months into their four year terms, the Urbana, Illinois City Council has finally agreed on a set of goals to work toward during 2022 and 2023. After a number of failed attempts, the Council finally voted to approve a list of goals at their April 11th...
by Check CU | Apr 13, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Officials appear to be more concerned with finding ways to deny and delay public records requests than they are with providing the actual records. The City routinely takes months to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from...
by Check CU | Apr 11, 2022 | Latest Articles
University of Illinois PhD graduate and Urbana resident Tracy Chong speaks during public input about FOIA violations The Urbana, Illinois City Council shows no signs of changing their well-established practice of ignoring residents’ reports of Freedom of Information...
by Check CU | Apr 8, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Council member for Ward 7 James Quisenberry at the April 4th, 2022 Council meeting Since mid-2021, residents have been making requests to the Urbana, Illinois City Council to allow remote public input at their in-person meetings in the same way...
by Check CU | Apr 7, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin and Council members Jaya Kolisetty, Grace Wilken, Christopher Evans, James Quisenberry, Shirese Hursey, Chaundra Bishop, and Maryalice Wu The entire Urbana, Illinois City Council seems content simply ignoring numerous public records...
by Check CU | Apr 4, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten at the April 4th, 2022 City Council Committee of the Whole meeting Urbana, Illinois City Administrator Carol Mitten announced at a Council meeting tonight that the City had received zero bids in response to their...
by Check CU | Apr 3, 2022 | Latest Articles
New Interim Police Chief Richard Surles (bottom left), resigned Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (bottom center), and new Interim Deputy Police Chief Matthew Bain (bottom right) at the March 28th 2022 Urbana City Council meeting. On March 28th, the Urbana, Illinois City...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
New Interim Police Chief Richard Surles (bottom left), resigned Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (bottom center), and new Interim Deputy Police Chief Matthew Bain (bottom right) at the March 28th 2022 Urbana City Council meeting. Earlier this evening, the Urbana City...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Residents now have an easy to use tool for submitting complaints about Urbana, Illinois Police officers. The non-profit “Civilian Resource Site” at UrbanaPolice.org now has a web portal that can be used to submit complaints at any time, by any person, even...
by Check CU | Mar 28, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Council members have thus far ignored the statutory and contractual violations by their Police Department in regards to the handling of complaints against police officers. Check CU recently published two articles showing that the Urbana...
by Check CU | Mar 27, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Police Officer Colby Wright shoots an unarmed subject in the back with his TASER in a 2019 incident. The subject turned out to be an innocent bystander who was misidentified by Urbana Police. Deputy Chief Richard Surles argued that the TASER use was...
by Check CU | Mar 26, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin will ask the City Council to appoint current Deputy Chief Richard Surles to the position Interim Police Chief at Monday night’s meeting. Lieutenant Matthew Bain will be appointed to Interim Deputy Police Chief. Police Chief...
by Check CU | Mar 7, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and Mayor Diane Marlin participate in a police reform march on June 1st, 2020. Demonstrations were held in Urbana-Champaign and nation-wide to push for greater accountability and transparency in policing, with a focus on...
by Check CU | Mar 6, 2022 | Latest Articles
The Urbana, Illinois City Council passed a resolution on Police use of force more than a year ago, but it has gone almost entirely ignored. More than a year after the passage of “A Resolution Prioritizing Tactical De-escalation in the Use of Force Policy and Police...
by Check CU | Mar 5, 2022 | Latest Articles
The Urbana, Illinois Police Department (UPD) has been distributing complaint forms that contain language which violates state law, as well as UPD’s contractual agreement with the people of Urbana. Check CU recently published an article showing that the Urbana...
by Check CU | Mar 5, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois City Council member Christopher Evans speaks on September 13th, 2021 about the Urbana Fraternal Order of Police contract negotiations: “The contract was never discussed…Council was kept ignorant as to what was going on.” It seems the...
by Check CU | Mar 3, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Police Officers chase a resident with TASER gun and pistol drawn Seven years after passing a TASER gun review requirement for their police department, the Urbana, Illinois City Council seems to have given a passive thumbs-up to its destruction. ...
by Check CU | Feb 24, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana, Illinois Mayor Diane Marlin speaks at a City Council meeting study session on February 22nd, 2022. “This is a violation,” said Urbana, Illinois City Clerk Phyllis Clark when she became aware that a meeting of the Urbana City Council on Tuesday evening was...
by Check CU | Feb 20, 2022 | Uncategorized
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin made a number of promises to the public in 2020 after widespread demand for police reform. One of the most substantial declarations by Marlin, seemingly in an effort to steer discussion of police reform away from City Council meetings, was...
by Check CU | Feb 14, 2022 | Latest Articles
In September 2021, the Urbana City Council voted to significantly reduce their role in selecting police command staff. All seven Urbana City Council members campaigned on increased police oversight and accountability, and four of those Council members made it one of...
by Check CU | Feb 10, 2022 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin The Urbana Police Department and the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) have been openly violating their mandate for more than two years. Whereas City Ordinance and UPD policy require the Police Department to review TASER gun...
by Check CU | Jan 17, 2022 | Latest Articles
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...
by Check CU | Jan 16, 2022 | Latest Articles
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...
by Check CU | Nov 14, 2021 | Latest Articles
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...
by Check CU | Nov 14, 2021 | Latest Articles
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...
by Check CU | Oct 10, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) proposal, initially presented to the City Council on September 20th, has been tabled by the Committee of the Whole (COW) for the time being. At the October 4th COW meeting, some members expressed concerns about the...
by Check CU | Oct 5, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin has repeatedly abused meetings rules and the Open Meetings Act during her terms as Mayor Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin violating the Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) is certainly not a new phenomenon. Hardly a month goes by where Check CU...
by Check CU | Oct 3, 2021 | Latest Articles
Dan Murdock, a salesperson for ALPR supplier Flock Safety, at the September 20, 2021 Urbana City Council meeting During the September 20th Urbana City Council presentation on automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), a number of issues were raised about the lawfulness...
by Check CU | Oct 2, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana City Council members ask questions on September 20th after a presentation urging them to vote for spending on Automatic License Plate Readers to be distributed throughout the City At the September 20th City Council meeting the Urbana Police Department (UPD)...
by Check CU | Sep 30, 2021 | Latest Articles
On September 13th, the Urbana City Council voted on a new Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) contract which effectively locked out any police reform efforts for the next two years. The new FOP contract is largely similar to the prior one, which expired and was...
by Check CU | Sep 13, 2021 | Latest Articles
Before voting against Urbana’s new Fraternal Order of Police contract this evening, Council member Christopher Evans broke from his typically low-key presence at City Council meetings and issued a prepared statement which certainly turned some heads. Evans spoke...
by Check CU | Sep 12, 2021 | Latest Articles
Since mid-2020, police “use of force” has become a front-and-center issue both locally and nationally. The City of Urbana has been hearing from residents about the need for police use of force reform for the past 18 months, and City officials have frequently...
by Check CU | Aug 30, 2021 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin (left) and Deputy Chief Richard Surles (right) present their revised Use of Force Policy to the Urbana City Council on August 23rd, 2021. On August 23rd the Urbana City Council heard a presentation from Chief of Police Bryant...
by Check CU | Aug 23, 2021 | Latest Articles
On July 27 2020 Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin declares the creation of an “Advisory Committee on Public Safety and Policing” Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin made a number of promises to the public after widespread demand for less violence and greater accountability in...
by Check CU | Apr 11, 2021 | Latest Articles
The Mayor of Urbana and the Council who helped her promote content-based speech restrictions at public meetings are struggling to cope with a recent Attorney General determination that their meeting rules violate state law. The Council discussed the AG ruling at...
by Check CU | Mar 8, 2021 | Latest Articles
Sgt. James Cory Koker helps pin down Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis on April 10, 2020 At tonight’s Urbana City Council meeting, Mayor Diane Marlin will be seeking approval from the Council for the appointment of a handful of positions, such as Deputy Fire Chief and City...
by Check CU | Jan 6, 2021 | Latest Articles
On November 2nd, 2020, Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten spoke about a mysterious memo regarding the legality of the obstacles she had placed in front of Urbana residents attempting to submit police complaints. The memo was in regards to the filing of...
by Check CU | Dec 14, 2020 | Latest Articles
New Urbana Community Engagement Coordinator, Lemond Peppers, speaks at a Human Relations Commission meeting on December 9th, 2020. Check CU is in possession of records from the City of Urbana which reveal more about the recent hiring of Lemond Peppers as their...
by Check CU | Dec 5, 2020 | Latest Articles
Curt Borman, serving as Urbana’s Freedom of Information Act Officer, has become known for numerous illegal records denials and fees in regards to resident requests for police records. Records provided by the Village of Carpentersville have Urbana residents...
by Check CU | Nov 22, 2020 | Latest Articles
Demonstrators amass just north of the Urbana City Building on June 1st, carrying signs for George Floyd, Aleyah Lewis, Black Lives Matter, and innumerable slogans for police reform and accountability. After the killing of George Floyd in May, almost every government...
by Check CU | Nov 12, 2020 | Latest Articles
Urbana Police Use of Force Listening Session (Mayor Diane Marlin, Chief Bryant Seraphin, Lieutenant Joel Sanders, Community Engagement Coordinator Sherman Lemond Peppers) An Urbana Police Listening session revealed some disturbing behavior from Urbana’s new...
by Check CU | Oct 27, 2020 | Latest Articles
City Administrator Carol Mitten gave a presentation on Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) complaints and appeals hearings at the Urbana City Council meeting Monday night. I had predicted she would attempt to deceive the Council and the public the previous week,...
by Check CU | Oct 26, 2020 | Latest Articles
The “use of force” listening sessions that Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten briefly mentioned at last week’s City Council meeting were officially announced this afternoon. The announcement is coupled with the creation of a new section on the Urbana City...
by Check CU | Aug 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
Bijal Patel, Christopher Hansen, Sarah Nixon, Alen Romero (originally published by the Public i) Officers Michael Cervantes, Eric Ruff, and James Cory Koker wrestle Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis to the ground and apply handcuffs (image captured from Eric Ruff’s...
by Check CU | Jun 23, 2020 | Latest Articles
On June 23rd, four Urbana residents submitted “A Residents’ Petition for Reforming the City of Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB)” to the Mayor, City Council, and the members of the CPRB. The petition was also posted to change.org and has been signed by over...
by Check CU | May 29, 2020 | Latest Articles
A Meeting of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board For the past seven Urbana City Council meetings, residents have lined up to deliver what has amounted to several hours of criticism and dozens of misconduct allegations against the Urbana Police Department. ...
