The Urbana Police Department and the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) have been openly violating their mandate for more than two years. Whereas City Ordinance and UPD policy require the Police Department to review TASER gun incidents, the police don’t want to go through the trouble, and the CPRB does not seem to care.
The requirement to review all TASER gun displays is not unclear: if a TASER is removed from its holster, a review needs to be performed. “TASER display” is explicitly defined: “’TASER display’ shall mean and include the unholstering and/or discharge of a TASER device.”
Despite the clear definition of what constitutes a display, and a clear directive that the UPD must perform a review with the CPRB of every display, for the past thirty months the UPD has refused to perform those reviews. The pressure to cease TASER reviews has come primarily from Deputy Chief Richard Surles, who has been complaining (for at least the past four years) about having to spend time on the reviews.
They have opted to only review TASER discharges, and even then the reviews are typically delayed by about two years from the date of the incident, and UPD has repeatedly failed to provide video of the incidents. More recently, the CPRB was told that they are not allowed to discuss possible misconduct even if they do perform a TASER review.
Police Chief Bryant Seraphin never approached the Urbana City Council requesting that the TASER review requirements be changed. Instead, he simply ignored the necessary legislative steps and quietly changed the UPD TASER policy. Sometime between May 2020 and now, the UPD TASER policy was altered to remove TASER displays from review requirements.
Not only is it unlawful for Police Chief Seraphin to single-handedly change City Ordinance, it is contrary to the plainly stated expectations and agreement between the Police Department and the City Council. The agreement that any changes to “use of force” policies would be brought to the City Council were discussed in at least two meetings last year:
At the November 1st, 2021 Urbana City Council meeting, in response to concerns about police policy changes, Alderman Maryalice Wu clarified that “Part of the resolution that we wrote when we did de-escalation and transparency was we wrote in to the resolution that updates to the Use of Force Policy have to be brought to the city council.”
Had Chief Seraphin brought his proposed alteration to the TASER Policy to a City Council meeting, he may have been informed that he does not have the authority to rewrite City Code.
There does not appear to be any limit to the extent of misconduct that Urbana City officials can get away with. When a single appointed official can rewrite the law at his leisure, outside of public view, and without any legislative process, something is terribly amiss. However, conduct of this nature is not uncommon in Urbana.
The Urbana City Council continues to turn a blind eye to the Use of Force Review Board scam that was revealed five months ago, wherein Chief Seraphin had repeatedly made false claims to the City Council about his officers conducting use of force reviews (in reality, there exists no evidence that the Use of Force Review Board has ever held a meeting or reviewed anything).
Mayor Diane Marlin’s appointed City Administrator, Carol Mitten, frequently exercises legislative power – undoing and rewriting whatever is needed to remove accountability wherever possible. Mitten once administratively threw out the results of an official board hearing after the Human Relations Commission (HRC) determined that the City was unlawfully discriminating against employees. The City Council allowed it to happen and that single event rendered the HRC essentially useless and powerless.
Despite repeated and well-documented misconduct of City Officials such as Chief Bryant Seraphin, Deputy Chief Richard Surles, and City Administrator Carol Mitten, the City Council continues to reappoint these individuals year after year. The following Urbana City Council members voted to reappoint these officials in June of 2021:
- Maryalice Wu: Yes
- Christopher Evans: Yes
- Shirese Hursey: Yes
- Jaya Kolisetty: Yes
- Chaundra Bishop: Yes
- James Quisenberry: Yes
- Grace Wilken: No