The draft Community-Police Forum Plan, “A Community’s Pathway to Building Stronger Police-Community Relations and Opportunities for Youth…. A Call to Action: Neighborhood by Neighborhood”, is now being shared with participants for their review and comments at https://champaignil.gov/cfreport. The Community-Police Forum was held on March 15, 2010 at the Hawthorne Suites, Champaign and attended by a group of more than 300 youth, police officers and other community members, who worked together to address pre-identified focus questions.
The Community Forum Working Group, a committee made up of representatives from the City Council, Human Relations Commission, Champaign Community and Police Partnership, and City staff thoroughly reviewed a 43-page document that included all comments and ideas presented by citizens at the Forum. That review indicated five (5) common themes (goals), that serves as the foundation for the Plan. The five areas include:
- Community Partners. As a community, we work in partnership with all entities that have a vested interest in developing our youth and improving police-community relations.
- Police-Community Engagement. As a community, we utilize resources to develop and promote effective community-police relations.
- Community Communications. As a community, we utilize resources that promote openness, accountability and transparency between the police and community.
- Youth Development. As a community, we utilize all available resources in an effort to ensure that each at-risk youth develop to their fullest potential.
- Youth Engagement. As a community, we utilize resources to promote positive youth behavior and effective youth-police interaction.
This Plan will be presented at a City Council Study Session on August 24, 2010 at 7 p.m. in the Champaign City Council Chambers, 102 N. Neil Street.