Evanston’s Human Services Committee held a special meeting Tuesday to discuss the creation of a citizen review board that would investigate complaints against city police officers. The need for such a board was first brought up two years ago after residents said police officials were not responding to complaints and were not sensitive to the specific needs of residents. At the end of the meeting, it was decided more research was needed before a decision could be made.Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington said he appreciated the need for a citizen review board but was concerned about the cost of creating one.”There’s no crisis or scandal to deal with right now, so I’m willing to put in time to work on putting together a board,” Eddington said. “But I want to know how big this problem is and I am interested in immediate, cost-free solutions.”The city currently has a civilian review panel that receives a summary of the investigations conducted by the Office of Professional Standards, a department within EPD that handles complaints. The panel gets the results after police officials review the complaint and the police chief has handed down a sanction to the officer.But while Eddington worried about the cost of creating a citizen review board, aldermen asked what role the proposed board would play in dealing with police misconduct.Some aldermen, such as Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th Ward) spoke in defense of the board’s establishment.”Citizens don’t want to sanction officers and don’t want to take away from the chief’s power, but they still want to have a voice on what’s going on,” Bernstein said.He also said there was a problem with how the community viewed its police officers.”Every cop is not a bad guy,” he said.Residents at the meeting spoke in favor of improving the current review process so as to create more awareness for the police department of the people it protects.”A citizen review board would be concerned about the fairness and equal rights of everyone in Evanston,” said resident Judith Treadway, who offered several suggestions for establishing a civilian panel separate from the Office of Professional Standards. Treadway’s ideas included making complaint forms available in locations besides the police department, such as the Civic Center at 2100 Ridge Ave.Aldermen are looking at examples of civilian review panels in other cities, particularly San Diego, as models for creating one in Evanston. The next meeting will be held July 2 to decide if the board will be created.Reach Ryan Reeh at [email protected].