Urbana Council Pressured to Expand Police Department – Illinois

by Check CU | Apr 16, 2024 | 0 comments

Urbana, Illinois Police Chief Larry Boone presents to the City Council on Police Department staffing on April 1st, 2024

The Urbana City Council has recently undergone two presentations pushing for a significant expansion of the Police Department (at significant cost), and there are more to come.

Last month, the first portion of the long awaited $235,000 BerryDunn public safety review was released. The idea for this review was initially formulated by the Council in early 2021 and was approved by the Council on June 28^th, 2021. However, as of April 2022, the City hadn’t received any bids on what was to be a $186k contract.

In early 2023, consulting firm BerryDunn was selected to perform a review of “public safety”, and a year after beginning their work in March of 2023, they have now released a 289 page report titled “Public Safety Services Operational Review & Assessment”. BerryDunn then held a presentation about this report at the March 25^th, 2024 City Council meeting and we have provided that video here:

Then, on April 1^st, 2024, the Urbana Police Department held another presentation illustrating their perspective and plans regarding staffing (provided below).

The short and simple version: both BerrDunn and the Urbana Police Department are calling for a large expansion of the police force; a lot more officers, and a lot more money.

Even before the BerryDunn report was released, Urbana Police Chief Larry Boone had already proposed a huge increase in the size of the department – calling for fifteen additional officers at a cost of about $2 million. BerryDunn is now calling for the addition of seven sworn officers and six “community service responders” or CSRs.

At 289 pages in length, one thing is certain: very few people will read the BerrDunn report (and keep in mind, this is just the first of multiple reports). Fortunately, Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth and Urbana resident Jane McClintock have taken the time to review and summarize the first 166 pages of the report (the portion which focuses on policing). A copy of their two page summary is provided below.

The Urbana City Council will hold another public meeting and discussion on the BerryDunn report on April 29^th, 2024 at 7pm in the City Building.