It has been more than six weeks since Check CU published an article showing that Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin unlawfully changed TASER review procedure. Though Urbana’s laws provide for careful review of every TASER display, Police Chief Bryant Seraphin has instructed his officers to ignore that requirement.
Such a change in procedure is simply not within the Police Chief’s power – it would require a Council vote.
Check CU sent notices to the Urbana City Council on February 10th, March 3rd, and March 13th, describing the TASER review violations, but none of the seven Council members have responded. Members of the public have also spoken about the TASER review issue at most of the Council meetings in the past six weeks, but Urbana Officials have been unwilling to issue an acknowledgement.
TASER review problems are not new in Urbana. Residents have been raising concerns at City Council meetings, as well as Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) meetings, for the past 2-3 years. The CPRB, which is also tasked with review of police complaints, was made integral to the TASER review process in 2015.
TASER reviews have often been incomplete, delayed for years, and/or not performed at all. For an incident that occurred in February 2019 where Urbana Officers discharged a TASER gun at a man who was slowly backing away from them, the CPRB had to make six different attempts over the course of nearly two years to convince Deputy Chief Richard Surles to attend a meeting with the appropriate video and police reports.
About three years ago, the Urbana Police Department unilaterally decided that they could stop using TASER gun cameras, even though the cameras were an agreed upon requirement for the department to purchase TASER guns in 2015.
More recently, Urbana City staff have claimed that the CPRB is prohibited from discussing possible officer misconduct in regards to any TASER review. According to City Administrator Carol Mitten and City Attorney David Wesner, even when the CPRB members feel that an officer has improperly discharged their TASER gun, they are not allowed to speak that thought out loud.
Such a restriction would appear to render CPRB TASER reviews almost entirely pointless, and does not align with the plainly stated intent of the City Council when they voted for TASER review in 2015:
“WHEREAS, the City Council deems it appropriate to amend Ordinance No. 2011-05-034 (Urbana City Code Sec. 19-20 et seq.) in order to confer authority on the CPRB to generally review the Police Department’s compliance with proper directives, policies, practices, procedures, and protocols concerning the deployment and use of TASERs…”
Failures to review use of force incidents are not limited to TASER usages. About a year ago, Check CU discovered that the Urbana Police Department User of Force Review Board has not been meeting and reviewing incidents for the past several years. The Urbana City Council has been informed of this several times over the past six months, but no explanation has been given.
It is not clear why the Urbana City Council, most of whom campaigned with platforms heavily focused on police reform, appear so apathetic on these matters. Despite all of the concerns raised by Urbana residents in regards to these failures, Council members Wu, Evans, Hursey, Kolisetty, Bishop, and Quisenberry all voted to reappoint Mitten, Seraphin, Surles, and Wesner to their current positions.
Tomorrow evening (March 28th, 2022) the same Council members will vote to promote Richard Surles to the position of Interim Deputy Police Chief for a two year term.