The City of Bloomington's police accountability panel took four months to resolve its most recent complaint against the department — a decision slowed by the group's inability to meet regularly. And now it's considering meeting even less often.
The Public Safety and Community Relations Board [PSCRB] determined officers acted appropriately in declining to arrest the perpetrator of an alleged battery last May. It was the board's first complaint in two years.
Assistant Police Chief Chad Wamsley said he took an "unprecedented" step in asking the McLean County state's attorney's office to review the case.
“My goal was to present this in August so we could have a resolution,” he said. “As it lingered on, I kept hearing every meeting of additional complaints and potential additional evidence. I wanted to make sure we uncovered everything that was presented to us.”
Upon review, the state's attorney said there was insufficient evidence for criminal charges.
During Wednesday’s meeting, PSCRB member Ashley Farmer said the public often misunderstands the board's role, which is narrow in scope. The PSCRB determines whether police policies and procedures were followed during the investigation of a citizen's complaint to the department. It has no oversight or disciplinary power.
But Farmer said the public looks to them for validation they feel wronged.
“It’s not uncommon, I don’t think, for people who encounter the police … to feel like they were victims, and then there are no charges that come about,” she said. “Then they feel like justice hasn’t been served.”
Wamsley said officers have discretion on whether to pursue charges, issue a citation or take no action when called to a scene. PSCRB member Nitin Aurora, a former law enforcement officer, asked if there is a policy in place to explain their decision.
“I don’t want to say it’s clearly written in policy like that,” Wamsley responded. “They try to explain what the situation is.”
Wamsley said in the incident at hand, officers collected statements from multiple witnesses and decided to issue ordinance violations, which were later dropped. While the board backed the officer's handling of the matter, they made a separate recommendation that officer training include skill building for communicating officer discretion to both suspects and victims. Wamsley asked the board to add the words "when applicable."
“A lot of times when these happen, it’s in the heat of the moment,” he said. “People are upset. They’re angry. They’re not sometimes even being rational, to be quite honest. So trying to explain that to where they understand it—a lot of times we’re not going to be able to calm them down.”
But Wamsley agreed that revisiting officers’ vocabulary and resources for explaining discretionary decision making was a worthwhile recommendation.
Potential move to quarterly meetings
Part of the reason for the delay in ruling on the complaint is the PSCRB’s struggle with consistent attendance and public engagement. It's considering a change from daytime monthly meetings to a quarterly format, with four meetings a year in the evening. Currently, a quarterly meeting is held at 6 p.m. with opportunities for open dialog with the public, but they’re poorly attended.
Members disagreed about the idea, with founding member Art Taylor saying the board had a responsibility to make itself available to the community “at any given time.”
Youth member Giselle Lee said the afternoon meeting time is a greater barrier than frequency. And Farmer said meeting less frequently may hurt, not help, the board's ability to get regular quorums. Member Sean Murphy and board chair Rachel McFarland advocated for meeting less often, pointing to topical meetings as resonating more with the community. McFarland noted strong participation from the public when they gathered law enforcement after the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey by former Sangamon County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Grayson.
Taylor said the PSCRB’s formation was inspired, in part, by the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, with community members responding most strongly to police misconduct and events that have taken place somewhere else.
But Wamsley doesn’t believe the PSCRB is a solution in search of a problem.
“None of these issues have happened in Bloomington, thank goodness, however it is an option for the public to come out and discuss them. And I think that’s important,” he said.
How to improve community engagement for regular meetings, however, is “the million-dollar question.”
“We have seen dwindling numbers showing up for these meetings,” Wamsley said. “We don’t get a lot of people attending. To me, that’s a good sign, in a way, that we don’t have complaints. However, it’s worrisome if there are complaints—why aren’t they showing up to the meetings?”
Several members pointed to communication is the primary challenge to getting public support.
“Most of the world is online,” said member Ty Smith, who recommended creating a Facebook page to promote meetings and share discussion topics with community members. Youth member Giselle Lee agreed with the idea.
“Not only will we get more attendance, but we’ll get more people connected with what’s going on so they feel the need, or understand why they should be here,” she said.
Members did not decide whether to move to quarterly meetings only. They hope to hear public feedback before voting—at the next quarterly meeting in the spring.
