On June 27th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council voted to reappoint two members of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) who have openly engaged in misconduct for more than a year.
For the durations of their prior terms on the CPRB, Board members Anthony Allegretti and Tony Rice have both refused to follow their mandate to review Urbana Police TASER usages. Allegretti even attempted to deceive the public in regards to TASER review requirements.
The concerted effort to evade Urbana’s TASER review requirements appear to be a result of a backdoor agreement between the sitting CPRB members and now Interim Chief of Police Richard Surles. The scheme goes back to September 2019 when Surles and the CPRB decided to ignore their legal mandate to review all police TASER usages. To date, neither Surles nor any member of the CPRB has attempted to explain what gives them the authority to undo the laws passed by the City Council.
In the few TASER incidents that have been reviewed over the past several years, CPRB members have stretched for reasons to excuse obvious police misconduct.
Mayor Diane Marlin enthusiastically advocated for the reappointment of Rice and Allegretti and the Council voted as follows:
- Maryalice Wu: Yes
- Christopher Evans: Yes
- Shirese Hursey: Yes
- Jaya Kolisetty: Yes
- Chaundra Bishop: Yes
- Grace Wilken: Yes
- James Quisenberry: Yes
The Urbana City Council has been aware of the repeated misconduct of Richard Surles and the CPRB members since at least early 2020. Prior Council member Bill Brown even publicly recognized the misconduct at a Council meeting in May 2020. Human Resources and Finance Director Elizabeth Hannan agreed with Brown but she failed to take any follow up action.
The Urbana City Council has been informed numerous times of the ongoing misconduct, including right before the vote, but they still unanimously voted to reappoint the perpetrators. It is not clear why the City Council continues to reappoint Board members who flagrantly abuse their mandate, and reappoint other public officials who propagate such behavior.