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HomeMy WebLinkAboutG45-21 Ordinance No. G45-21 AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A COMMUNITY TASK FORCE ON POLICING WHEREAS, the City of Elgin is a home rule unit pursuant to the Illinois Constitution; and WHEREAS, the City of Elgin as a home rule unit may exercise power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs; and WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Elgin has determined that it is desirable to establish a community task force on policing to evaluate and make recommendations to the City Council regarding certain matters with respect to the Elgin Police Department; and WHEREAS, the establishment of a community task force on policing as provided herein pertains to the government and affairs of the city. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ELGIN, ILLINOIS: "Section 1. COMMUNITY TASK FORCE ON POLICING CREATED: There is hereby created the community task force on policing for the purpose of evaluating and making recommendations to the City Council regarding certain matters with respect to the Elgin Police Department. Section 2. MEMBERSHIP: A. The community task force on policing shall be composed of 18 members to be appointed by the City Council and 2 ex officio non-voting members who shall be members of the City Council appointed by the City Council. Each member shall serve for an indefinite term. The City Council may at any time appoint successor members to the task force to replace then current members or to fill vacancies. The members of the task force shall select from task force members a chairman and vice chairman of the task force. B. The following persons are hereby appointed as members to the community task force on policing:Marcus Banner,Marcus Bradley,Corey Battles,Aubree Flickema,Kevin Zalivar, Shimon Blanchard,LeJewel K.Crigler,Carroll Bailey,Penelope Williams, Charles Horton, Walter Blalark, Sherman Blair, Jr., Tish Calhamer, Joshua Brockway, Danise Habun, Ismael Cordova, Cynthia M. Rivera, and Karen Arreola. Councilmember Tish Powell and Councilmember Toby Shaw are also hereby appointed as ex officio non-voting members of the task force. �L Section 3. POWERS AND DUTIES: The community task force on policing shall have the power and duty to evaluate and make recommendations to the City Council regarding the following matters with respect to the Elgin Police Department: A. Assessing the effectiveness of the methods the Elgin Police Department (EPD) employs to engage with the community, including identifying opportunities for improving police culture, ensuring accountability and restoring community trust, particularly within communities of color. The assessment will include a peer city comparison, data/statistical analyses, the participation of peer city police agency representatives, community input, and recommendations for training and process improvement. The assessment will also examine how the EPD is being used in the community, identifying which services being provided are working well and which services may be better accomplished by other agencies or civilians. Interviewing members of the community,elected officials,city administrators and EPD members to determine the need for,structure of,and best practices model for a formal civilian review of police matters. The facilitators and task force may also elect to conduct field observations of police operations. B. Reviewing the adequacy of existing processes for citizen reporting and filing of complaints, including an evaluation of community desires for alternative and redundant processes not maintained by EPD for filing complaints. C. Reviewing EPD's progress in achieving best practices and innovative approaches, including but not limited to practices contained within the"Report of the President's Task Force on 21 st Century Policing"and consistency of EPD's use of force policies with best practices. D. Reviewing EPD's personnel management practices,including hiring,promotion,and provide recommendations on how those processes support recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. E. Evaluating current EPD training practices, emphasizing the applicability of these practices to the interaction with the diverse members of the community and the human rights values of Elgin, and making recommendations for changes to the training curricula, methods of delivery, and frequency of training. F. Reviewing police data to determine, insofar as possible, if disparities exist in interactions with discernable subsets of the community, including race, ethnicity, gender and the LGBT population,mental health,alcohol and/or substance abuse and age/educational status).Determining whether there are procedural,practical or other barriers serving to suppress or discourage the reporting of complaints. 2 G. Assessing the adequacy of the current staffing status and equipment requirements and making recommendations based on best practices and peer city models. H. Reviewing demographics and comparing of incident data from "peer" cities to understand how Elgin compares and possibly identify causes,influencing factors,or communities that may offer learning opportunities. I. Creating a proposed plan for implementing task force recommendations along with mechanisms for the recurring assessment of performance and review and integration of best practices.The facilitators,in conjunction with the task force,will identify the tasks required and associated level of effort,proposed costs,schedule for completion, and the deliverables to be provided. Section 4. MEETINGS: The members of the community task force on policing shall meet as soon as practicable and shall establish regular meeting dates. The community task force on policing may establish rules regarding the conduct of the meetings and where not otherwise provided Robert's Rules of Order,Newly Revised, shall apply. Minutes shall be taken at all meetings. All meetings shall be conducted in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. Section 5. FINAL REPORT AND DISSOLUTION OF TASK FORCE: The community task force on policing shall submit all of its recommendations and a final report to the City Council by June 1, 2022. The community task force on policing shall automatically be dissolved on June 1, 2022, unless the City Council takes further action to extend or recreate the task force." Section 6. That all ordinances or parts of ordinance in conflict with the provisions of this ordinance be and are hereby repealed to the extent of any such conflict. Section 7. That this ordinance shall be in full force and effect upon its passage and publication in the manner provided by law. 110 -�ZOWZV76&Aa x- David J. Kal5rain,Mayor 3 Presented: September 8, 2021 Passed: September 8, 2021 Vote: Yeas: 9 Nays: 0 Recorded: September 8, 2021 Published: September 10, 2021 � Att s Kimberly Dewis, City C 1 4 0 ELGIN MEMORANDUM THE CITY IN THE SUBURBS To: Mayor and City Council Members From: Richard G. Kozal, City Manager Date: 25 August 2021 Re: Recommended Appointments to the Community Task Force on Policing The city entered into a professional services agreement earlier this year with Kearns & West, in partnership with the University of Illinois-Chicago, to work as group facilitators in creating and facilitating the City's community task force on policing, including assisting the task force in drafting a final report. The Kearns&West Team has been coordinating with the city manager's office and police department in developing an overall work plan for the task force's creation and operation. In June, the Kearns & West Team was introduced to the city council and the public. A call for applications was issued by the city on June 10th with a deadline for submissions on July 9th. The Kearns & West Team received 70 applications. In mid-July, the Kearns & West Team met with Councilmembers Tish Powell and Toby Shaw, liaisons to the task force, along with the city manager Rick Kozal and police chief Ana Lalley to preliminarily review the applications. The initial review process focused on the substance of the applications absent independent knowledge of the identities of those submitting applications for consideration. The Kearns & West Team made its initial rec- ommendations on potential task force members using a "blind" analysis in which the ap- plicants' names are omitted from consideration when being presented to Councilmembers Powell and Shaw for consideration. In other words, Councilmembers Shaw and Powell were presented with appointments for consideration without knowing the identity of the persons being recommended. At the conclusion of that initial review, 25 applicants were identified for final review and recommendation to the city council by Councilmembers Shaw and Powell. Councilmembers Powell and Shaw are recommending the appointment of 18 persons to the Community Task Force on Policing. The recommendations are being derived from the Kearns & West Team's preliminary list of 25 applicants except for two persons. (The final selection decision was never intended to be limited to the preliminary list of appli- cants.) The applicants being recommended for appointment to the Community Task Force on Policing by Councilmembers Shaw and Powell are: Mayor and City Council Members 25 August 2021 Page 2 Marcus Banner LeJewel K. Crigler Tish Calhamer Marcus Bradley Carroll Bailey Joshua Brockway Corey Battles Penelope Williams Danise Habun Aubree Flickema Charles Horton Ismael Cordova Kevin Zalivar Walter Blalark Cynthia M. Rivera Shimon Blanchard Sherman Blair, Jr. Karen Arreola Before an ordinance establishing the Community Task Force on Policing can be adopted at a future city council meeting, the city council must: (1) identify the number of task force members; (2) how a chairperson will be appointed; (3)the scope of task force duties, and: (4) a date on which final determinations will be issued. Councilmembers Powell and Shaw are recommending 18 persons be appointed to the task force to ensure there will be sufficient members available to conduct the work that is expected take about a year to complete. If unforeseen events require even a handful of task force members to resign their positions, the remaining membership will still be suffi- cient to complete the task force work and issue a final report. The continuing role of Coun- cilmembers Shaw and Powell should also be considered, such as whether they should be non-voting ex-officio members/liaisons to the Community Task Force on Policing or task force members with full voting privileges. The city council must also determine how the task force chairperson is selected. The city council can choose to designate a chairperson and any alternate or instead authorize the task force to determine its chairperson and any alternate. The scope of the Community Task Force on Policing's duties was outlined the in the application form created to solicit members: ■ Assessing the effectiveness of the methods the Elgin Police Department (EPD) employs to engage with the community, including identifying opportunities for im- proving police culture, ensuring accountability and restoring community trust, par- ticularly within communities of color. The assessment will include a peer city com- parison, data/statistical analyses, the participation of peer city police agency rep- resentatives, community input, and recommendations for training and process im- provement. The assessment will also examine how the EPD is being used in the community, identifying which services being provided are working well and which Mayor and City Council Members 25 August 2021 Page 3 services may be better accomplished by other agencies or civilians. Interviewing members of the community, elected officials, city administrators and EPD mem- bers to determine the need for, structure of, and best practices model for a formal civilian review of police matters. The facilitators and task force may also elect to conduct field observations of police operations. ■ Reviewing the adequacy of existing processes for citizen reporting and filing of complaints, including an evaluation of community desires for alternative and re- dundant processes not maintained by EPD for filing complaints. ■ Reviewing EPD's progress in achieving best practices and innovative approaches, including but not limited to practices contained within the "Report of the President's Task Force on 21 st Century Policing" and consistency of EPD's use of force poli- cies with best practices. ■ Reviewing EPD's personnel management practices, including hiring, promotion, and provide recommendations on how those processes support recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. ■ Evaluating current EPD training practices, emphasizing the applicability of these practices to the interaction with the diverse members of the community and the human rights values of Elgin, and making recommendations for changes to the training curricula, methods of delivery, and frequency of training. ■ Reviewing police data to determine, insofar as possible, if disparities exist in inter- actions with discernable subsets of the community, including race, ethnicity, gen- der and the LGBT population, mental health, alcohol and/or substance abuse and age/educational status). Determining whether there are procedural, practical or other barriers serving to suppress or discourage the reporting of complaints. ■ Assessing the adequacy of the current staffing status and equipment requirements and making recommendations based on best practices and peer city models. ■ Reviewing demographics and comparing of incident data from "peer' cities to un- derstand how Elgin compares and possibly identify causes, influencing factors, or communities that may offer learning opportunities. ■ Creating a proposed plan for implementing task force recommendations along with mechanisms for the recurring assessment of performance and review and integra- tion of best practices. The facilitators, in conjunction with the task force, will identify the tasks required and associated level of effort, proposed costs, schedule for com- pletion, and the deliverables to be provided. Mayor and City Council Members 25 August 2021 Page 4 An end date on which the Community Task Force on Policing will submit its final determi- nations should be identified in the ordinance establishing the task force. If unforeseen conditions arise necessitating the task force's continuance beyond the identified end date, the city council can amend the ordinance to extend the end date as needed. RGK c. Karina Nava William A. Cogley Kimberly Dewis Ana Lalley