City Administrator Carol Mitten gave a presentation at the November 2nd Urbana City Council meeting in regards to a contentious police complaint requirement that has been under discussion by the Civilian Police Review Board. The question is whether a police complaint can be filed by someone who has witnessed a transgression partially or wholly by viewing the incident on video, rather than in-person.
After discussing the issue at their meetings, the CPRB members determined that someone wishing to issue a police complaint based on video evidence should be allowed to do so. With input from no fewer than three different attorneys (two of whom are board members), the board determined that for the purposes of a police misconduct complaint, a complainant who witnessed misconduct on video would satisfy the requirements of the CPRB Ordinance.
The “first-hand account” language of the CPRB Ordinance can be see here:
Mitten’s City Council presentation exuded a posture of tattling on the CPRB members, as though they had done something wrong and she was telling on them to Mother Mayor. Mitten then referred to a mysterious “memo” from “outside counsel” which she claimed will demonstrate that a video witness is not allowed based on the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Contract with the City of Urbana. Mitten read the specific language from the FOP Contract:
“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.”
Mitten could not explain why “personal knowledge” would not include what someone had viewed on video. Mitten said the memo would be made available to the public, but she never posted it in the meeting record, or on the City’s CPRB page. Check CU cannot find the memo anywhere on the City of Urbana website.
Mitten’s conduct here is in exact alignment with all of her past conduct in regards to police complaints: obstruction of civilian access to the CPRB in every way possible. This recent move by Mitten required her to stretch imagination to justify the new obstruction, but at the same time, she has allowed very obvious failures which are favorable to police transgressions to go unchecked.
When the CPRB directly violates their ordinance in the direction of less police oversight, City staff either promote the violation or look in the other direction. In September of 2019, the board, with the convincing of Deputy Chief Richard Surles, decided to stop reviewing all TASER displays, even though their ordinance requires that every TASER incident be reviewed. The TASER review mandate was raised repeatedly by concerned residents, and Council member Bill Brown raised the issue at the May 18th City Council meeting, but the CPRB still won’t comply with their ordinance. Carol Mitten, who vowed in June to keep the board in compliance, is nowhere to be found on this issue.
The CPRB “first-hand account” presentation given by Urbana City Administrator Carol Mitten at the November 2nd, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting can be viewed here:
-Christopher Hansen, Urbana