A new organization hopes to improve the justice system experience for victims of crime in McLean County.
The Bloomington-based Care For Victims is led by Amy Endicott. While the group is young, Endicott said it's already done an informal, high-level assessment of several agencies in McLean County. They looked at how well victims’ rights are communicated, whether and how victims are informed of community resources, and whether the agencies themselves are transparent and accountable.
Endicott said Care For Victims found lots of room for improvement with how, when and where victims are made aware of their legal rights. In Illinois, victims have a very specific list of legal rights, such as the right to communicate with the prosecution, the right to restitution, and the right to timely notification of all court proceedings, to name a few.
“They’re not being provided to victims consistently. Most people have never heard of them or know what they are, let alone how to enforce them,” Endicott said. “Victims are going to different points and different locations for assistance. They could be going to a hospital, or a police lobby, or calling people to come help them at home. All of these different points and places in time, they should be made aware of what their rights are. And that’s not necessarily happening, and definitely not consistently.”
Care For Victims wants to see more widespread and consistent promotion of victims’ rights online and in physical spaces like police department lobbies and courthouses.
“Why do we know more about the rights of the accused than we do the rights of the abused? That illustrates the inequality within the justice system that we’re trying to correct,” said Endicott, who works as a consultant across several industries. Former McLean County Board candidate Erica Larkin also is working as a consultant with Care For Victims.
Endicott said Care For Victims’ review also found some of the documents provided to victims to connect them with helpful community resources were outdated or had irrelevant information.
The group wants to see improvement in accountability measures, too. Bloomington, for example, has its Public Safety and Community Relations Board [PSCRB] that can review how complaints against police are resolved. Normal does not have a comparable body.
Endicott said she’d also like to see more efforts to help the public understand what Bloomington’s PSCRB does — and to give it more “teeth,” or power, to act after a review.
Going public
Endicott spoke during public comment at Monday’s Normal Town Council meeting. She plans to speak at an upcoming Bloomington City Council meeting as well.
Endicott, who serves on the Bloomington Human Relations Commission and graduated from Normal's All About Normal civic education program, has met with city and town staff. A Town of Normal spokesperson said they’ve already made several changes since their initial meeting with Care For Victims, including updating police complaint information online and making it easier to find.
They’ve also begun conversations with Normal Police about adding information about victims’ rights, and they will consider other Care for Victims feedback when making website updates, the town spokesperson said.
Endicott said she was generally disappointed with how her findings were received by the Town of Normal, and that her request to formally present to the council [rather than a public comment] was declined. WGLT asked: Would it be premature to give a small and very new group its agenda item during a council meeting?
“Although we may be young as an organization, we’re seasoned as consultants in the work that we do, and our findings and recommendations were very valid,” Endicott said.
Normal Mayor Chris Koos said Monday’s public comment was the first he’s heard of the Care for Victims group. He said 1-on-1 meetings with council members may have been a more effective route — and that he has questions. He said town staff did not necessarily agree with Care for Victims’ findings.
He pointed to Normal Police’s longstanding accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, or CALEA, as a sign of high standards.
“We feel like we’re doing a good job. Do we feel like we’re perfect? No, we don’t,” Koos said. “What I’m trying to understand is, I don’t even know who this group is. What are their qualifications to do this work? How are they going to do this work? What are the outcomes they’re looking for? That’s very unclear.”
Endicott said the City of Bloomington initially was more receptive to the feedback.
Added Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens, “We welcome efforts to shine a light on services for victims and remain committed to supporting and strengthening those services.”
