Evanston’s Citizen Police Review Commission, which reviews citizen complaints in an effort to promote public confidence in the Evanston Police Department, held their monthly meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting, excluding an hourlong private executive session, lasted for 17 minutes. Most of that time was spent discussing a complaint from June 22, 2023, claiming that a neighbor was publicly walking his dog without a leash and a service desk officer did not properly address the issue.
The commission, which City Council approved in November 2019, was initially created to review the city’s Office of Professional Standards’ investigations into complaints of police conduct.
In the past, the commission has received a low number of complaints. The Daily reported in 2022 that the commission had experienced challenges over the committee’s power to hold EPD “accountable.”
The committee canceled the recent August meeting due to lack of quorum — voting members.
Tonight, the commission did not have any public comments to address during the meeting.
The complainant spoke with a service desk officer, who she accused of making “dismissive comments about (the dog’s) leash being invisible,” according to the departmental inquiry. The complainant also alleged that the service desk officer she spoke with did not issue a citation as requested, nor did he follow up with the complainant as promised.
This type of complaint is not new to the commission, according to commission member Scott Fishman.
“We’ve already seen this exact case, I think, last spring,” he said. “Same players, same belligerent attitude on both sides, quite frankly.”
For commission member Blanca Lule, the incident highlighted the importance of proper de-escalation.
“I think that the officers had some difficulty communicating with both parties,” she said. “They were constantly interrupting each other, and at some point, the officer needs to just learn to deal with people like that and don’t let things escalate to a level where you’re arguing over whether a piece of paper constitutes a serious thought.”
A harassment complaint in July regarding an EPD police officer during a traffic stop, which was also on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, was sent to the Chief of Police, Schenita Stewart. De-escalation policies are also recommended for the officer by the committee.
The commission voted to recommend de-escalation training to EPD in 2023, The Daily reported.
The commission’s next meeting is on Nov. 6.
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