Problem exists with complaint process

In her recent letter, Amy Koker incorrectly claims that I misstated the facts about the Urbana Police complaint procedure and that I was attempting to slander police officers.

My letter was not slanderous; it was critical of a complaint procedure that discourages citizens from filing complaints and prevents misconduct from being addressed.

The Frequently Asked Questions section of the city of Urbana Web site tells citizens that if they mail a complaint to the citizens review board then the review board gets to review the complaint. This is not the case. Readers of the police review board ordinance will find that any complaint filed with the review board has to be immediately forwarded to the police department. The ordinance also spells out another key point not found in the FAQ section: any complaint not on an official complaint form will be rejected.

I will explain why this is a problem.

It is my understanding that in two different cases certified legal transcripts were offered as evidence of misconduct.

The police chief is not allowed to accept court transcripts as evidence because they are not "an official complaint form," so in some cases the police review board ordinance prevents misconduct from being addressed. If there were a desire to address misconduct, Urbana would not dismiss complaints just because they are on the wrong color of paper.

RICHARD REYNOLDS

Urbana