Formulating alternative response plan among next steps for Urbana police

May 1—URBANA — While some members of the community question a recent recommendation to add more sworn police officers in Urbana, department leaders have been calling for more staff for quite some time.

Deputy Chief Rich Surles pointed to a 1997 article in The News-Gazette that touched on the subject.

"Calls for increased staffing have long been put aside by a variety of decision-makers," he said. "Before the hiring of Chief (Larry D.) Boone, he also recognized the lack of appropriate staffing at the Urbana Police Department. The staffing need was so apparent that he addressed the need for increased resources for the police department with both city administration and the city council as a factor for him agreeing to accept the job as chief."

The city of Urbana is working with national consulting firm BerryDunn to review its public safety services. The group's Public Safety Services Operational Review and Assessment, which marks the first phase of this project, was recently released.

Among other things, the firm found that UPD does not have sufficient patrol staffing to handle its workload.

BerryDunn recommended that the department establish a "patrol operational minimum staffing level" of 44 positions and said that this can be achieved by adding seven sworn police officer positions and six non-sworn community service responder (CSR) positions.

Surles said the department is in favor of "any additional resources to provide service to the community," including CSRs.

"For decades, the burden has fallen squarely on the shoulders of sworn officers to solve a myriad of problems in the community," he said. "Some of those problems are not crime-related. Some of those problems are a result of the reduction of funding in other areas of our society and government. A good example relates to mental illness."

However, he added that certain details would need to be addressed if they pursued adding CSRs, such as who would train and supervise those individuals.

Racial bias concerns

Members of the Urbana City Council and the public also have questions about the firm's report. During this week's special council meeting, Michele Weinzetl, the project lead from BerryDunn, answered about 40 questions that aldermen had submitted prior to the session, as well as some raised by residents during the time for public comment.

About 10 individuals offered comments in person or via email prior to Weinzetl's presentation. Some of the recurring themes included a concern about the firm's recommendation to add more officers, an interest in exploring alternative models and a desire to have more community engagement in the process.

Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth was among those who spoke. She expressed concern about the firm's emphasis on freeing up more time for officer-initiated activities and said the report shows that these activities mostly involve traffic stops.

"Traffic stops in Urbana have a long history of unacceptable racial bias," Chynoweth said. "... So I don't understand that recommendation, because it seems to exacerbate racial disparities."

Per an industry standard described by Weinzetl, 30 percent of an officer's time should be spent on "obligated workload" and another 30 percent should go toward administrative work, leaving 40 percent uncommitted.

BerryDunn estimates that about 40 percent of Urbana police officers' time is spent on obligated workload at present, she said. Assuming that the same percentage of time is spent on administrative workload, that leaves approximately 20 percent for uncommitted time.

Weinzetl said that while it's accurate that much of the latter category is spent on traffic stops, that doesn't mean it's the sole use of that time, as other tasks often go untracked.

Other officer-initiated activities might include engaging public service contacts, proactive patrols, field interviews, making business and pedestrian contacts, and elective activities such as community policing and problem solving.

"Really, in the 30-30-40 model, there is a presumption that organizations want to have a community policing focus and work collaboratively with the community," she said.

Call for committee

Alderman Chaundra Bishop asked if it might be possible to create a policy that keeps UPD officers from making traffic stops a main priority with their unobligated time and instead directs them to focus on other activities.

Weinzetl replied that it's up to the department to set its priorities on how officers use unobligated time.

"The determination as to what the organization should prioritize is really a factor of what the administration and the community wants to be prioritized," she added.

WBEZ and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity's database of traffic stop records shows that 46.5 percent of drivers stopped by Urbana police in 2022 were Black. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 17 percent of the city's population is solely Black or African American.

When asked if he thinks there are local issues with racial profiling in regards to traffic stops, Surles replied that UPD is "committed to providing just and constitutional policing."

Weinzetl said that the report released in March is just one part of the larger project. The next step is a report on essential calls for service, which should be released soon.

According to the March report, the essential calls for service report will include analysis of "impartial policing policy."

Weinzetl added that there will be more community engagement about alternative response models as the project continues. This will include meetings with local organizations, practitioners and possible service providers.

"Those conversations will ultimately blend into and become a part of the proposed alternative response plan," she said. "We're envisioning and have spoken with Mayor (Diane) Marlin about pulling together ... a committee to sit down and have those conversations and ultimately help assist with developing the proposed alternative response plan."

The committee will also work with city officials to determine "any additional input opportunities" for the community, she said.

When asked who might sit on the group, Weinzetl said it would not necessarily be up to BerryDunn to decide, but likely members would include representatives from UPD, the city council and the service community.

Once the city has approved a response plan, BerryDunn would work with Urbana to develop an implementation strategy, she said.