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 Police Department has been violating Illinois State law, and their own Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Contract in regards to police complaints.
Urbana Police Complaint Form Violates State Law
Urbana Police Violate FOP Contract, Illinois State Law
The articles show that the Urbana Police Department continues to dispense unlawful police complaint forms to members of the public. The complaint forms also violate the terms of an Urbana FOP contract that went into effect on July 1st, 2020.
The 2020 FOP contract removed the language, “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.”
Illinois statute also regulates such language: (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.
The violations are not limited to just the complaint form itself. Multiple Urbana Police webpages indicate that the complainant must be an eyewitness and that the complaint “must be signed and notarized”. The website twice directs complainants to bring photo ID when submitting a complaint. The Policy and Procedures Manual under the “Citizen Police Complaint” section of the Urbana Police webpage says that a complainant must be a physically present eyewitness and they must sign an approved complaint form.
Urbana City Officials heralded the removal of the sworn affidavit and physical presence requirements as wins for the people of Urbana when they voted to approve the new FOP contract, though it seems those advertisements were not valuable enough to justify follow-through. Two clips from their September 13th, 2021 meeting are shown below.
These violations of both state law and FOP contract raise other questions. For example, in order to comply with state law, the Urbana FOP contract also removed requirements to destroy police disciplinary records. If the UPD are continuing to destroy police complaints, reprimands, and disciplinary records (as they had been prior to the execution of the 2020 FOP contract and the change to state law), that could spell serious legal repercussions for the City.
The Urbana Police Department “Citizen Complaint Form” and webpages that describe complaint requirements can be viewed below (click image for full 18-page PDF). Highlights performed by Check CU. A full copy of the Urbana Police Department complaint form, acquired at the Urbana Police Station on March 3rd, 2022, is also provided.
